Extracting potential new targets for treatment of Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma using bioinformatic methods

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is a slow-growing malignancy that most often occurs in the salivary glands. Although reasonable local control is usually achieved by tumor surgery and subsequent radiation therapy, recurrence at the same or distant site is the cause of treatment failure. Currently, no FDA-approved therapeutic target or diagnostic biomarker has been identified for this cancer. To find the therapeutic and diagnostic targets for ACC, we extracted the gene expression information from two GEO datasets. Different expression genes (DEGs) between ACC and normal samples were extracted and used to explore the biochemical pathways involved in ACC and create a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network.After analyzing the PPI network, 20 hub genes were introduced that have potential as diagnostic and therapeutic target. Among them, PLCG1 and EZH2 were introduced as new biomarkers in ACC that might have a high value in the diagnosis and treatment of ACC. Furthermore, by studying the roles of the hub genes in the enriched biochemical pathways, we found that most likely, IGF-1R/IR and PPARG pathways play a critical role in tumorigenesis and drug resistance in the ACC and have a high potential for selection as a therapeutic target in future studies.