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Figure 5 | BMC Cancer

Figure 5

From: microRNA alterations in ALDH positive mammary epithelial cells: a crucial contributing factor towards breast cancer risk reduction in case of early pregnancy

Figure 5

In silico network analysis describing interactions between differentially regulated microRNAs and some of the relevant proteins. Gene and microRNA datasets were analysed using Metacore from Thomson Reuters to demonstrate existing interactions between various components of the data sets. A) Descriptive network analyzing the microRNA dataset demonstrating the potential molecular interactions among microRNAs with many of the genes/proteins associated with stem cell or tumor suppressive/promoting functions. microRNAs in the dataset were found to be interacting with stem cell associated genes/proteins like BMI-1, LIN-28, SOX2 and NANOG. It was also observed that many of the microRNAs play a role in the regulation of proto-oncogenes like c-fos and c- and n-Myc or tumor suppressor like FOXO3 and p53. The interactions were found to be both direct and indirect in nature. B) Network analysis for the microRNAs to visualize their interactions with proteins involved in cell cycle regulation like P21, RBL1 (p107), PPARγ and CDKs. The interaction and expression levels of microRNAs in the parous compared to virgin ALDH positive MECs indicates that there possibly can be increased expression of P21 in the stem cells of the former group. C) Network depicting the possible regulation of EMT related markers like Vimentin, E-Cadherin, Slug, Snail, ZEB1 and HMGA2. Overall, we speculate that microRNAs like miR-15b and miR-98 co-ordinate the regulation of the expression of E-cadherin, ZEB1 (TCF8), HMGA2 and SNAIL. Similarly, miR-29a, miR-221 and miR-23b in this network seem to regulate the expression of Vimentin and SLUG indirectly through Caspase 7, AP-1 (activator protein 1) and PAK (p21 protein activated kinase 2).

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