Affiliations 

  • 1 Lincoln University College
MyJurnal

Abstract

Introduction: Colorectal cancer is one of the top three most commonly occurring cancer worldwide with more than 1.8 million cases in 2018. In Malaysia, colorectal cancer is the most common cancer in males and the second most common cancer in females. Albeit being the second most common form of cancer in Malaysia, there is a lack of a formal or structured national colorectal cancer screening programme in Malaysia and it remains a low priority in healthcare planning and expenditure in Malaysia. The risk of developing colon cancer is greatly influenced by factors such as lifestyle habits, genetic inheritance, diet, weight, and exercise. Kras, the most frequently mutated oncogene in cancer, occurs in about 50 percent of colorectal cancers. Methods: This study maps the kras gene involved in colon cancer pathway, using bioinformatics applications such as STRING version 11.0 and Cytoscape version 3.7.0 to provide a clear visualisation of all the related and involved proteins and genes that interact with this kras gene in the pathway. Results: The 3391 protein interactions were assembled and visualized in y organic form. Six spe-cific non-overlapping clusters of various sizes, which emerged from the huge network of protein-interactors using MCODE version 1.32 clustering algorithm were found. Biological Networks Gene Ontology (BiNGO) was used to determine two ontologies (molecular function and biological process) involved in the protein network. Based on the resulting protein-protein network interaction map, each interaction plays an important role in the cell cycle, meta-bolic pathways and signal transduction. Conclusion: Understanding these interactions provide insight into cellular activities and thus assist in the understanding of the aetiology of disease.