Editorial
Bioinformatics Playing a Lead Role in Cancer Therapeutics
Parveen Bansal*
Department of Excellence in Research, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, India
*Corresponding author: Parveen Bansal, Department of Excellence in Research, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, India
Published: 08 Jul, 2018
Cite this article as: Bansal P. Bioinformatics Playing a
Lead Role in Cancer Therapeutics. Clin
Oncol. 2018; 3: 1488.
Editorial
Due to new and powerful technologies, the volume of biological data collected during the
course of biomedical research has exploded. In last two to three decades, this world has witnessed
a rapid progress of biomarkers and bioinformatics technologies. Cancer bioinformatics is one of
such important omics branches for experimental/clinical studies and applications. The availability
of these data, and the insights they may provide into the biology of disease, can be used in a big way
for precision medicine. At the same time mining the volume of "Big Data" to answer the complex
biological questions that could bring precision medicine into the mainstream of clinical care is an
evident challenge in oncology.
It is well understood that a dysregulated expression of miRNAs plays a significant role in
development of human cancer [1-2]. The importance of miRNAs in cancer is accentuated by the
fact that they can function as oncogenes by down regulating tumor suppressor genes [3] or as tumor
suppressor genes by down regulating oncogenes [4]. According to an estimate by National Cancer
Institute (NCI), USA, just the research performed using next-generation sequencing of patient
genomes will produce one Exabyte data by end of 2017 from studies of patients with cancer. The
data generated is so complex that it would become unrealistic to think of finding a solution. Hence
basic as well as applied miRNA research is being enhanced by cutting edge computational tools and
databases freely accessible through online sources.
It is well known that microRNA targeting pathways of human disease provide a new and
potential powerful candidate for therapeutic intervention against various pathological conditions
[5]. In oral cancer, miRNAs have been shown to affect cell proliferation [6], apotosis [7], and
diagnosis and even in chemotherapy. Keeping in view the immense use of bioinformatics, a study
was conducted by authors to identify the genes involved in inflammation of oral cancer and find
out the key miRNA by constructing a micronome using Cytoscape software [8]. Dysregulated genes
obtained from oral cancer gene databases were analyzed and only experimentally proven miRNAs
of inflammatory genes were included in the study. In addition protein-protein interaction network
was constructed using Search Tools for Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database. The
constructed micronome revealed miR-19a/b as a key regulator for SOCS3 during cancer related
inflammation of oral squamous cell carcinoma [8]. Such type of micronomes can be constructed
for a number of cancers in different tissues of interest and bioinformatics can be explored for
development of more specific target oriented drug delivery systems at a very fast pace.
Bioinformatics can be further integrated with available data and insights from 5000 years old
texts in Ayurveda for personalized medicine, tailoring prevention, diagnosis, and treatment based
on the molecular characteristics of a patient’s disease. Huge flow of data has necessitated the need
of computational support for collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and correlation of data sets of
complex information. Use of bioinformatics enables researchers to observe economy and devise
noble targeted drug delivery systems. With the adoption of advanced bioinformatics, it has become
easier for researchers to overcome various challenges of time consuming and expensive procedures
of evaluation of safety and efficacy of drugs at a much faster and economic way. Bioinformatics may
be a major game player and trend setter for personalized medicine in cancer therapeutics and other
diseases in near future.
References
- Bartel DP. MicroRNAs: genomics, biogenesis, mechanism, and function. Cell. 2004;116(2):281-97.
- Bartel DP. MicroRNAs: target recognition and regulatory functions. Cell. 2009;136(2):215-33.
- Iorio MV, Ferracin M, Liu CG, Veronese A, Spizzo R, Sabbioni S, et al. MicroRNA gene expression deregulation in human breast cancer. Cancer Res. 2005;65(16):7065-70.
- Kozaki KI, Imoto I, Mogi S, Omura K, Inazawa J. Exploration of tumor-suppressive microRNAs silenced by DNA hypermethylation in oral cancer. Cancer Res. 2008;68(7):2094-105.
- Christopher AF, Kaur RP, Kaur G, Kaur A, Gupta V, Bansal P. MicroRNA therapeutics: discovering novel targets and developing specific therapy. Perspect Clin Res. 2016;7(2):68-74.
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- Wong TS, Liu XB, Wong BY, Ng RW, Yuen AP, Wei WI. Mature miR-184 as potential oncogenic microRNA of squamous cell carcinoma of tongue. Clin Cancer Res. 2008;14(9):2588-92.
- Christopher AF, Gupta M, Bansal P. Micronome revealed miR-19a/b as key regulator of SOCS3 during cancer related inflammation of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Gene. 2016;594(1):30-40.