Identification of antisense and sense RNAs of intracrine fibroblast growth factor components as novel biomarkers in colorectal cancer and in silico studies for drug and nanodrug repurposing

• Published in: Environmental research 2023-12, Vol.239, p.117117-117117, Article 117117
• Main Authors: Rejali, Leili, Nazemalhosseini-Mojarad, Ehsan, Valle, Laura, Maghsoudloo, Mazaher, Asadzadeh Aghdaei, Hamid, Mohammadpoor, Hadis, Zali, Mohammad Reza, Khanabadi, Binazir, Entezari, Maliheh, Hushmandi, Kiavash, Taheriazam, Afshin, Hashemi, Mehrdad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomarker; Clinical examination; Colorectal cancer; Gene analysis; Intracrine FGF
• ISSN: 0013-9351; 1096-0953
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117117

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most malignant tumors and in which various efforts for screening is inconclusive.The intracrine FGF panel, the non-tyrosine kinase receptors (NTKR) FGFs and affiliated antisenses play a pivotal role in FGF signaling.The expression levels of coding and non-coding intracrine FGFs were assessed in CRC donors.Also, substantial costs and slow pace of drug discovery give high attraction to repurpose of previously discovered drugs to new opportunities. The aim of present study was to evaluate the potential role of the coding and non-coding intracrine FGFs as a new biomarkers for CRC cases and defining drug repurposing to alleviate FGF down regulation. RNA-seq data of colon adenocarcinomas (COAD) was downloaded using TCGA biolinks package in R.The DrugBank database (https://go.drugbank.com/) was used to extract interactions between drugs and candidate genes. A total of 200 CRC patients with detailed criteria were enrolled.RNAs were extracted with TRIzol-based protocol and amplified via LightCycler® instrument.FGF11 and FGF13 proteins validation was performed by used of immunohistochemistry technique in tumor and non-tumoral samples.Pearson's correlation analysis and ROC curve plotted by Prism 8.0 software. RNA-seq data from TCGA was analyzed by normalizing with edgeR.Differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis was generated. WCC algorithm extracted the most significant genes with a total of 47 genes. Expression elevation of iFGF antisenses (12AS,13As,14AS) compared with the normal colon tissue were observed (P = 0.0003,P = 0.042,P = 0.026, respectively). Moreover,a significant decrease in expression of the corresponding sense iFGF genes was detected (P