Identification of RNA binding proteins as candidate therapeutic targets for the treatment of cancer

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Καμζόλας, Ιωάννης
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Λυγερού, Ζωή
• Μορφή: Thesis
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: 2019
• Θέματα: RNA binding proteins; Computational analysis; Drug screening; Data collection; RNA binding πρωτεΐνες; Υπολογιστική ανάλυση; Καρκινικοί ιστοί; 616.994 06

RNA binding proteins (RBPs) are proteins that bind to the RNA in cells and form ribonucleoprotein complexes. It is estimated that approximately 7.5% of all protein-coding genes in the human genome code for RBPs and their aberrant expression has profound effects on cellular physiology and the pathogenesis of human disease, including cancer. This thesis is part of a drug target discovery project. The aim of the project is to evaluate the role of RBPs in cancer prognosis and identify RBPs that could be potential drug targets in four types of cancer (lung, gastric, ovarian and breast cancer). Our results reduce the number of RBPs that will be screened as potential novel drug targets. We start with an analysis of the effect of high level expression of known RBPs on cancer patient survival using publicly available RNA expression and patient survival data and continue with a comparison between the gene expression in normal and cancerous tissues. More specifically, the main steps of this study are the following: 1. Identification of RBPs whose mis-expression correlates with poor survival in cancer patients, ranked by statistical significance 2. Prioritization of this hit list, integrating diverse data sources and comparing the difference in expression between normal and cancerous tissues 3. Selection of candidates to be taken forward into drug screening