Network modeling of the transcriptional effects of copy number aberrations in glioblastoma
Journal article, 2011

DNA copy number aberrations (CNAs) are a hallmark of cancer genomes. However, little is known about how such changes affect global gene expression. We develop a modeling framework, EPoC (Endogenous Perturbation analysis of Cancer), to (1) detect disease-driving CNAs and their effect on target mRNA expression, and to (2) stratify cancer patients into long- and short-term survivors. Our method constructs causal network models of gene expression by combining genome-wide DNA- and RNA-level data. Prognostic scores are obtained from a singular value decomposition of the networks. By applying EPoC to glioblastoma data from The Cancer Genome Atlas consortium, we demonstrate that the resulting network models contain known disease-relevant hub genes, reveal interesting candidate hubs, and uncover predictors of patient survival. Targeted validations in four glioblastoma cell lines support selected predictions, and implicate the p53-interacting protein Necdin in suppressing glioblastoma cell growth. We conclude that large-scale network modeling of the effects of CNAs on gene expression may provide insights into the biology of human cancer. Free software in MATLAB and R is provided.

Models

Gene Expression Profiling

metabolism

pathology

Gene Dosage

Nuclear Proteins

genetics

Genetic

Genome-Wide Association Study

metabolism

Databases

Factual

genetics

pathology

Transcriptional Activation

genetics

Human

Cell Line

genetics

Glioblastoma

metabolism

Gene Regulatory Networks

mortality

Chromosome Aberrations

Nerve Tissue Proteins

Prognosis

Software

genetics

metabolism

Neoplastic

genetics

Tumor Suppressor Protein p53

Humans

mortality

Genome

Tumor

Nervous System Neoplasms

Gene Expression Regulation

metabolism

Author

Rebecka Jörnsten

University of Gothenburg

Chalmers, Mathematical Sciences, Mathematical Statistics

Tobias Abenius

University of Gothenburg

Chalmers, Mathematical Sciences, Mathematical Statistics

Teresia Kling

University of Gothenburg

Linnéa Schmidt

University of Gothenburg

Erik Johansson

University of Gothenburg

Torbjörn E M Nordling

Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

Bodil Nordlander

University of Gothenburg

Chris Sander

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Peter Gennemark

University of Gothenburg

Chalmers, Mathematical Sciences

Keiko Funa

University of Gothenburg

Björn Nilsson

Lund University

Linda Lindahl

University of Gothenburg

Sven Nelander

University of Gothenburg

Molecular Systems Biology

17444292 (eISSN)

Vol. 7 486- 486

Subject Categories

Cell and Molecular Biology

Other Biological Topics

Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

Probability Theory and Statistics

DOI

10.1038/msb.2011.17

PubMed

21525872

More information

Latest update

3/7/2018 1