Identify signature regulatory network for glioblastoma prognosis by integrative mRNA and miRNA co-expression analysis

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive type of primary brain tumor in adults. Patients with this disease have a poor prognosis. The objective of this study is to identify survival-related individual genes (or miRNAs) and miRNA -mRNA pairs in GBM using a multi-step approach. First, the weighted gene co-expression network analysis and survival analysis are applied to identify survival-related modules from mRNA and miRNA expression profiles, respectively. Subsequently, the role of individual genes (or miRNAs) within these modules in GBM prognosis are highlighted using survival analysis. Finally, the integration analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression as well as miRNA target prediction is used to identify survival-related miRNA -mRNA regulatory network. In this study, five genes and two miRNA modules that significantly correlated to patient's survival. In addition, many individual genes (or miRNAs) assigned to these modules were found to be closely linked with survival. For instance, increased expression of neuropilin-1 gene (a member of module turquoise) indicated poor prognosis for patients and a group of miRNA -mRNA regulatory networks that comprised 38 survival-related miRNA -mRNA pairs. These findings provide a new insight into the underlying molecular regulatory mechanisms of GBM.