Identifying the molecular association between diabetic nephropathy and hepatocellular carcinoma: an network biology approach

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) pose significant global health burdens. DN is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease and is closely associated with metabolic dysregulation, whereas HCC is the most common primary liver cancer, often arising from chronic liver condit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tammanna R. Sahrawat, Arnesh Saxena
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institute for Medical Science, Jeju National University 2025-05-01
Series:Journal of Medicine and Life Science
Subjects:
Online Access:http://e-jmls.org/upload/pdf/jmls-2025-22-2-60.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850245713160568832
author Tammanna R. Sahrawat
Arnesh Saxena
author_facet Tammanna R. Sahrawat
Arnesh Saxena
author_sort Tammanna R. Sahrawat
collection DOAJ
description Diabetic nephropathy (DN) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) pose significant global health burdens. DN is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease and is closely associated with metabolic dysregulation, whereas HCC is the most common primary liver cancer, often arising from chronic liver conditions, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cirrhosis. Although studies have indicated a clinical association between DN and HCC, the underlying molecular association remains unexplored; therefore, the present in-silico network biology study was conducted. Microarray datasets for DN and HCC were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus and processed using Bioconductor Packages to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). For the common DEGs between DN and HCC, a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using STRING. Topological analysis of the PPI network was performed using Cytoscape and its plug-ins, MCODE, CytoHubba, and CytoCluster, to identify hub genes, and their functional enrichment was performed using Enrichr Knowledge Graph. From the 67 common DEGs, five hub genes were identified, namely, APOA2, APOA5, APOC1, APOC3, and APOH, which belong to the apolipoprotein family. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis identified their involvement in cholesterol metabolism and proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) signaling pathway, emphasizing their potential significance in lipid and other metabolic processes. Dysregulation of apolipoproteins results in altered lipid metabolism and oxidative stress in both diabetic complications and cancer progression. In conclusion, the hub genes identified in the present study can be further explored as promising biomarkers for prognosis and diagnosis in DN and HCC, as well as therapeutic interventions.
format Article
id doaj-art-4e5a923749374c1c92dff2b876f7dab3
institution OA Journals
issn 2671-4922
language English
publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher Institute for Medical Science, Jeju National University
record_format Article
series Journal of Medicine and Life Science
spelling doaj-art-4e5a923749374c1c92dff2b876f7dab32025-08-20T01:59:21ZengInstitute for Medical Science, Jeju National UniversityJournal of Medicine and Life Science2671-49222025-05-01222606810.22730/jmls.2025.22.2.60565Identifying the molecular association between diabetic nephropathy and hepatocellular carcinoma: an network biology approachTammanna R. SahrawatArnesh Saxena0 Centre for Systems Biology and Bioinformatics, UIEAST, Panjab University, Chandigarh, IndiaDiabetic nephropathy (DN) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) pose significant global health burdens. DN is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease and is closely associated with metabolic dysregulation, whereas HCC is the most common primary liver cancer, often arising from chronic liver conditions, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cirrhosis. Although studies have indicated a clinical association between DN and HCC, the underlying molecular association remains unexplored; therefore, the present in-silico network biology study was conducted. Microarray datasets for DN and HCC were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus and processed using Bioconductor Packages to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). For the common DEGs between DN and HCC, a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using STRING. Topological analysis of the PPI network was performed using Cytoscape and its plug-ins, MCODE, CytoHubba, and CytoCluster, to identify hub genes, and their functional enrichment was performed using Enrichr Knowledge Graph. From the 67 common DEGs, five hub genes were identified, namely, APOA2, APOA5, APOC1, APOC3, and APOH, which belong to the apolipoprotein family. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis identified their involvement in cholesterol metabolism and proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) signaling pathway, emphasizing their potential significance in lipid and other metabolic processes. Dysregulation of apolipoproteins results in altered lipid metabolism and oxidative stress in both diabetic complications and cancer progression. In conclusion, the hub genes identified in the present study can be further explored as promising biomarkers for prognosis and diagnosis in DN and HCC, as well as therapeutic interventions.http://e-jmls.org/upload/pdf/jmls-2025-22-2-60.pdfdiabetic nephropathiescarcinoma, hepatocellularapolipoproteinscomorbiditylipid metabolism
spellingShingle Tammanna R. Sahrawat
Arnesh Saxena
Identifying the molecular association between diabetic nephropathy and hepatocellular carcinoma: an network biology approach
Journal of Medicine and Life Science
diabetic nephropathies
carcinoma, hepatocellular
apolipoproteins
comorbidity
lipid metabolism
title Identifying the molecular association between diabetic nephropathy and hepatocellular carcinoma: an network biology approach
title_full Identifying the molecular association between diabetic nephropathy and hepatocellular carcinoma: an network biology approach
title_fullStr Identifying the molecular association between diabetic nephropathy and hepatocellular carcinoma: an network biology approach
title_full_unstemmed Identifying the molecular association between diabetic nephropathy and hepatocellular carcinoma: an network biology approach
title_short Identifying the molecular association between diabetic nephropathy and hepatocellular carcinoma: an network biology approach
title_sort identifying the molecular association between diabetic nephropathy and hepatocellular carcinoma an network biology approach
topic diabetic nephropathies
carcinoma, hepatocellular
apolipoproteins
comorbidity
lipid metabolism
url http://e-jmls.org/upload/pdf/jmls-2025-22-2-60.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT tammannarsahrawat identifyingthemolecularassociationbetweendiabeticnephropathyandhepatocellularcarcinomaannetworkbiologyapproach
AT arneshsaxena identifyingthemolecularassociationbetweendiabeticnephropathyandhepatocellularcarcinomaannetworkbiologyapproach