Identification of the key genes/proteins in hepatitis B virus and hepatocellular carcinoma via functional clusters in a proteinprotein interaction network

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been known as a major cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of the current study was to identify the hub genes/proteins which are common between hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and investigate the molecular mechanisms of those using Protein-Protein network. According to previous studies, we gathered 146 HBV-targeted human protein (HHBV) and 666 unique human proteins that interact with HCC (HHCC). 75 genes were considered as a seed for making the PPI network, which were common between HBV and HCC, using Cytoscape3.4. Subsequently, ClusterMaker app was applied to conduct a cluster analysis of the constructed network. Finally, the Cytoscape 2.1 app was also performed for each cluster and according to reports of centiscape 2.1 the hub genes/proteins were extracted. Then Gene ontology (GO) enrichment was applied to our derived data. Analysis of the PPI networks introduced 7 hub proteins, namely AKT1, SKP2, PPARG, CD81, CCNB1, STAT1, CCND1, CDKN2A which were presented in 7 PPI clusters. In view of this, the screened key genes/proteins may have the potential to become a candidate for diagnosing and treatment of HCC transformed from HBV.

Keywords:

Hepatocellular carcinoma , Hepatitis B virus , PPI network , Hub genes/proteins