TY - JOUR AU - Del Vecchio, Filippo AU - Gallo, Francesco AU - Di Marco, Antinisca AU - Mastroiaco, Valentina AU - Caianiello, Pasquale AU - Zazzeroni, Francesca AU - Alesse, Edoardo AU - Tessitore, Alessandra PY - 2015 DA - 2015/12/10 TI - Bioinformatics approach to predict target genes for dysregulated microRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma: study on a chemically-induced HCC mouse model JO - BMC Bioinformatics SP - 408 VL - 16 IS - 1 AB - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive epithelial tumor which shows very poor prognosis and high rate of recurrence, representing an urgent problem for public healthcare. MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are a class of small, non-coding RNAs that attract great attention because of their role in regulation of processes such as cellular growth, proliferation, apoptosis. Because of the thousands of potential interactions between a single miR and target mRNAs, bioinformatics prediction tools are very useful to facilitate the task for individuating and selecting putative target genes. In this study, we present a chemically-induced HCC mouse model to identify differential expression of miRNAs during the progression of the hepatic injury up to HCC onset. In addition, we describe an established bioinformatics approach to highlight putative target genes and protein interaction networks where they are involved. SN - 1471-2105 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-015-0836-1 DO - 10.1186/s12859-015-0836-1 ID - Del Vecchio2015 ER -