Yang, J.-J. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2018

Introduce a New Approach to Detect Genes Associated to Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) represents the most frequent of all oral neoplasms in the world. Genetics plays an important role in the etiopathogenesis of OSCC. However, the investigation of the molecular mechanism of OSCC is still incomplete. In this article, we introduced a new approach to detect OSCC-associated genes, in which we not only compare mean difference, but also variance difference between cases and controls. Based on two OSCC datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus, we identified 456 differentially variable (DV) gene probes, in addition to 2,375 differentially expressed (DE) gene probes. There are 2,193 DE-only probes, 274 DV-only probes, and 182 DE-and-DV probes. DAVID functional analysis showed that genes corresponding to DE-only, DV-only, and DE-and-DV probes were enriched in different KEGG pathways, indicating they play different roles in OSCC. This new approach can be used to investigate the genetic risk factors for other complex human diseases.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2018

The Association between Alcohol Consumption and Telomere Length: A Meta-Analysis Focusing on Observational Studies

BackgroundBoth telomere length and alcohol consumption play important roles in carcinogenesis and biological age. Many efforts have been made to investigate the association between alcohol consumption and telomere length. However, no consensus has been reached yet.\n\nMethodsIn this article, we performed a meta-analysis to integrate the investigation results in the literature about the association between alcohol consumption and telomere length. After searching articles published between 2000 and 2016, 21 articles (including 27 analyses, total sample size 35,891) met our eligibility criteria.\n\nResultsWe found a significant association between alcohol consumption and telomere length (Fishers combined p-value = 3.52E-8 and Liptaks weighted p-value = 8.24E-3). We also found that the significance of the association between alcohol consumption and telomere length varies with study type (cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional) and study population (Europe, Asia, American, or Australia).\n\nConclusionsCombined evidence showed that alcohol consumption is associated with telomere length. The consistent quantifications of alcohol consumption and telomere length would benefit the future aggregation of the evidence from different studies.

cancer biology↗