Bioinformatic Insights into the Challenges of miRNA-Based BRCA Status Classification

Abstract

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are vital tumor-suppressed genes closely related to the presence of ovarian cancer. Recent bioinformatic approach has been applied for identifying the potential carrier of BRCA mutant via miRNA microarray expression. However, our statistical analysis suggests that the limma filter method may not reflect true genotype status despite the significance some data render. In order to refine the identification of the BRCA subtype through differentially expressed miRNAs, the rank sum ratio method was employed to identify miRNAs demonstrating significance in two distinct tasks. The outcome highlights miRNAs that are not included in previous limma filtration for BRCA identification, suggesting an innovative perspective when analysing the expression pattern for disease genotype recognition.