CMTCN: a web tool for investigating cancer-specific microRNA and transcription factor co-regulatory networks

oleh: Ruijiang Li, Hebing Chen, Shuai Jiang, Wanying Li, Hao Li, Zhuo Zhang, Hao Hong, Xin Huang, Chenghui Zhao, Yiming Lu, Xiaochen Bo

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: PeerJ Inc. 2018-11-01

Deskripsi

Transcription factors (TFs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) are well-characterized trans-acting essential players in gene expression regulation. Growing evidence indicates that TFs and miRNAs can work cooperatively, and their dysregulation has been associated with many diseases including cancer. A unified picture of regulatory interactions of these regulators and their joint target genes would shed light on cancer studies. Although online resources developed to support probing of TF-gene and miRNA-gene interactions are available, online applications for miRNA-TF co-regulatory analysis, especially with a focus on cancers, are lacking. In light of this, we developed a web tool, namely CMTCN (freely available at http://www.cbportal.org/CMTCN), which constructs miRNA-TF co-regulatory networks and conducts comprehensive analyses within the context of particular cancer types. With its user-friendly provision of topological and functional analyses, CMTCN promises to be a reliable and indispensable web tool for biomedical studies.