A framework for identifying colorectal cancer genes in detected protein complexes

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers and has been the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Inherited factors have a significant role in the CRC growth and progression. Identification of mutation genes leading to CRC remains an arduous task. Compared with the biologically experimental technologies for detecting potential CRC genes, the computational methods are more worthwhile and more efficient. In the study, a new method called ICGPC is proposed to discover latent CRC susceptibility genes. ICGPC takes full advantage of all kinds of biological information closely related to CRC like protein-protein interactions, Sub-Cellular Localisation (SCL) and protein complexes. ICGPC discovers a list of potential proteins encoded by CRC-causal genes. The literature study method is used to evaluate the top proteins in the list and determine that out of 30 novel proteins, 10 proteins are closely associated to CRC. Especially, the top five proteins, i.e., PCNA, CDC20, CCNB1, FZR1 and CDC27, are the most promising candidates and biologists should pay more attention to them.