An Integrative Approach to Constructing MicroRNA-Gene Networks in Ovarian Cancer

Network integration is critical in understanding the underlying mechanisms of human health and diseases. Changes in miRNA and mRNA expression are known to be involved in both ovarian cancer development and progression. Pin-pointing the exact changes and the relationships that occur between them could lead to advances in how ovarian cancer is treated and diagnosed. Creating an integrated network involving eQTLs, miRNA targets, protein-protein interactions and correlation graphs is one way to explore these relationships. Integrating multiple data sources can thus allow us to create a wider and more holistic view of the interactions in ovarian cancer. Therefore, we developed a new method of constructing an integrated network by combining the strength of association study and network analysis. Applied to ovarian cancer, our integrated analysis replicated known cancer related miRNAs and genes, in addition to providing new candidate markers.