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Abstract MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNA molecules that are small, single-stranded, and contain 21 to 23 nucleotides. They are known to play extensive roles in various diseases and their development, including gynaecological cancers such as ovarian, vulvar, and cervical cancer. These cancers are prevalent among women and are often fatal. The heterogeneity of gynecological cancers poses a major challenge to diagnosis in modern medicine. In this study, we carried out extensive in silico analysis to identify hub genes, miRNAs, and their interactions, leading to the identification of potential biomarkers that could assist in the diagnosis and treatment of gynecological cancers. A total of three mRNA expression profiles of cervical cancer (GSE54388, GSE69428, and GSE36668) were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The statistical analysis of GEOR2 yielded 16344 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and by utilizing robust regression analysis, 229 common DEGs were retrieved. Among them, 94 and 135 genes were downregulated and upregulated, respectively. By utilizing STRING and Cytohuba, we retrieved ten hub genes via a protein-protein interaction network. These genes were named CDK1, AURKA, BUB1B, CCNB1, TOP2A, KIF11, BUB1, CCNB2, CDCA8, and BIRC5. Following extensive computational analysis using the miRDB tool and the NetworkAnalyst, dbDEMC, and MiRNAs databases, a total of 30 miRNAs that interact with hub genes were identified; among these miRNAs, hsa-miR-653-5p, hsa-miR-495-3p, hsa-miR-381-3p, hsa-miR-1266-5p, and hsa-miR-589-3p were the top five interactive miRNAs that targeted the most hub genes and were involved in key functions leading to colorectal cancer, gynecological cancer, glioma, and TGF-beta signalling. These miRNAs show promising interactions with hub genes, and serine/threonine protein kinases are the most strongly associated with these genes and appear to be potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets in gynecological cancers.
Zhu et al. (2024) studied this question.