Figure 1

The overall workflow of our integrative approach. The workflow to create the integrated network consisted of four phases; eQTL analysis, network association, network expansion and network integration. We began with data pre-processing in which we collected data and normalized it. The first phase of the workflow started with an eQTL analysis between miRNA and gene expression data using Matrix eQTL. Once the eQTL analysis was complete, we proceeded to the network expansion phase. In the network expansion phase, we used TarBase to identify miRNA targets based on the eQTLs found in Matrix eQTL. Next, we found protein-protein interactions for the identified targets. To select the most confident interactions, we chose the interactions with a p-value ≤ 0.05. Then we expanded the network with the selected protein-protein interactions using DAPPLE, creating the first integrated network. Simultaneously, we used MtLasso2G to discover network associations between miRNAs, creating miRNA correlation networks. We then combined the eQTL expanded network with the correlation networks to create the final integrated network.