Sarah K. Wooller, Laurence H. Pearl, Frances M. G. Pearl
{"title":"Identifying actionable synthetically lethal cancer gene pairs using mutual exclusivity","authors":"Sarah K. Wooller, Laurence H. Pearl, Frances M. G. Pearl","doi":"10.1002/1873-3468.14950","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Mutually exclusive loss-of-function alterations in gene pairs are those that occur together less frequently than may be expected and may denote a synthetically lethal relationship (SSL) between the genes. SSLs can be exploited therapeutically to selectively kill cancer cells. Here, we analysed mutation, copy number variation, and methylation levels in samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas, using the hypergeometric and the Poisson binomial tests to identify mutually exclusive inactivated genes. We focused on gene pairs where one is an inactivated tumour suppressor and the other a gene whose protein product can be inhibited by known drugs. This provided an abundance of potential targeted therapeutics and repositioning opportunities for several cancers. These data are available on the MexDrugs website, https://bioinformaticslab.sussex.ac.uk/mexdrugs.</p>","PeriodicalId":12142,"journal":{"name":"FEBS Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/1873-3468.14950","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"FEBS Letters","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1873-3468.14950","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Mutually exclusive loss-of-function alterations in gene pairs are those that occur together less frequently than may be expected and may denote a synthetically lethal relationship (SSL) between the genes. SSLs can be exploited therapeutically to selectively kill cancer cells. Here, we analysed mutation, copy number variation, and methylation levels in samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas, using the hypergeometric and the Poisson binomial tests to identify mutually exclusive inactivated genes. We focused on gene pairs where one is an inactivated tumour suppressor and the other a gene whose protein product can be inhibited by known drugs. This provided an abundance of potential targeted therapeutics and repositioning opportunities for several cancers. These data are available on the MexDrugs website, https://bioinformaticslab.sussex.ac.uk/mexdrugs.
期刊介绍:
FEBS Letters is one of the world''s leading journals in molecular biology and is renowned both for its quality of content and speed of production. Bringing together the most important developments in the molecular biosciences, FEBS Letters provides an international forum for Minireviews, Research Letters and Hypotheses that merit urgent publication.