Network Characteristics Of Human Rna-Rna Interactions And Application In The Discovery Of Breast Cancer-Associated Rnas

Biomolecules in organisms play various functions, which are largely achieved by linking with multiple interacting partners. The comprehensive study about these links could facilitate our systematic understand on biology progress. Recently, RNA-RNA interaction analysis provides a sight in disease study by revealing the RNA regulatory mechanisms. However, many studies have focused on specific types of RNAs, and the few have been reported from the perspective of the genome wide RNA-RNA interactions. In this study, we constructed an RNA RNA interaction network by extensively collecting reported RNA-RNA interactions and then compared it with the protein-protein interaction and the gene co-expression networks. Significant diversities were observed between these networks, involving the composition, the topological features and the pattern of the expression correlation between RNAs. When applied the RNA-RNA interaction network into the breast cancer, 15 miRNAs were identified as hub nodes and verified related to breast cancer. The topological properties of mRNAs in the network associated with their expression pattern and breast cancer correlation. The differentially expressed lncRNAs tend to interact with the differentially expressed mRNAs, indicating their importance in gene regulatory. These results suggest that RNA-RNA interaction network could be anticipated as a complement to the well-studied protein-protein interaction and co-expression network methods.