Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis of Gene Modules for Lung Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Lung cancer is the most common form of malignancies tumor, influenced by complex molecular network. Further understanding of the molecular mechanisms that lead to Lung cancer would be conducive to the detection and supervisory control of cancer, thereby improving clinical cancer treatment and personalized treatment. In this study, 47 co-expression modules were identified by constructing a weighted gene co-expression network. Subsequently, we investigated the biological significance of these modules by studying the GO biological process and KEGG pathways. The results show that two significant modules (green module and green-yellow module) enrich in the progress of blood vessels development, immune response and regulation, respectively. The top 50 genes with the two modules contain 3 LncRNAs and some hub genes, respectively. Therefore, these LncRNAs and the hub genes of SPTBN1, SFTPC, FHL1, and RP5-826L7 in the green module and FCER1G, NLRC4 and SAMHD1 in the green-yellow module may be associated with lung adenocarcinoma. It has been experimentally proved that they may play a crucial part in the pathogenesis of lung adenocarcinoma. In addition, the analysis of these hub genes may provide a reference to further learn about the pathogenesis of lung cancer.