fied, along with their associated protein‐protein interaction networks and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential network of arsenic trioxide (ATO) target genes in pancreatic cancer. The DrugBank, STITCH, cBioPortal, Kaplan-Meier plotter and Oncomine websites were used to analyze the association of ATO and its target genes with pancreatic cancer. Initially, 19 ATO target genes were identified, along with their associated protein‐protein interaction networks and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways. ATO was found to be associated with multiple types of cancer, and the most common solid cancer was pancreatic cancer. A total of 6 ATO target genes (namely AKT1, CCND1, CDKN2A, IKBKB, MAPK1 and MAPK3) were found to be associated with pancreatic cancer. Next, the mutation information of the 6 ATO target genes in pancreatic cancer was collected. A total of 20 ATO interacting genes were identified, which were mainly involved in hepatitis B, prostate cancer, pathways in cancer, glioma and chronic myeloid leukemia. Finally, the genes CCND1 and MAPK1 were detected to be prognostic factors in patients with pancreatic cancer. In conclusion, bioinformatics analysis may help elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the involvement of ATO in pancreatic cancer, enabling more effective treatment of this disease. Introduction Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive malignancies worldwide, with a mortality rate that is nearly equal to its incidence rate (1). Pancreatic cancer is expected to become the second leading cause of cancer-associated mortality in the US by 2030 (2). Despite advances in diagnostic and therapeutic strategies over the past years, the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer remains unsatisfactory, with a 5-year survival rate of <8.5% (3). Pancreatic cancer has become one of the major public health concerns worldwide. In order to improve the treatment of pancreatic cancer, it is necessary to elucidate the pathological mechanism underlying its development, identify a drug-based framework and investigate the functional mechanisms involved. Arsenic trioxide (ATO) has been reported to be an effective therapeutic agent for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) (4). It has been reported that ATO can induce molecular remission, as well as prolong the overall survival of patients with APL (5,6). Combined treatment with retinoic acid (RA) and ATO has been demonstrated to be curative for the majority of patients with APL (7-9). Furthermore, an increasing number of studies have proven the anti-carcinogenic properties of ATO in different tumors, including in gastric cancer (10), lymphoma (11), bladder cancer (12), head and neck cancer (13), and ovarian cancer (14). Although it has been reported that ATO may inhibit the progression of pancreatic cancer (15), the potential targets and molecular mechanisms of action of ATO remain unclear. In recent years, with the continuous improvement and development of high-throughput sequencing technology, multi-omics research (such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics) has gradually improved and has been used to identify disease-associated genes, which may uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying disease development and enable effective treatment. DrugBank is a richly annotated web-based bioinformatics tool that contains multiple drug data with comprehensive drug targets information (16). It provides detailed, step-by-step information on the results of previous studies on drugs, drug targets and drug effects, allowing researchers to search, view and export data, text and image (17). Furthermore, Search Tool for Interactions of Chemicals (STITCH) is an online database of the interaction networks of chemicals and proteins (18). Evaluation of the target genes of arsenic trioxide in pancreatic cancer by bioinformatics analysis CONG-YA ZHOU1, LIU-YUN GONG1, RONG LIAO2, NING-NA WENG2, YAO-YUE FENG2, YI-PING DONG1, HONG ZHU2, YA-QIN ZHAO2, YUAN-YUAN ZHANG1, QING ZHU2 and SU-XIA HAN1 1Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710061; 2Department of Abdominal Oncology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, P.R. China Received January 14, 2019; Accepted August 7, 2019 DOI: 10.3892/ol.2019.10889 Correspondence to: Dr Su-Xia Han, Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 277 Yanta West Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710061, P.R. China E-mail: shan87@mail.xjtu.edu.cn Dr Qing Zhu, Department of Abdominal Oncology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, 37 Guoxue Lane, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, P.R. China E-mail: newzhuqing1972@yahoo.com Abbreviations: ATO, arsenic trioxide; PPI, protein‐protein interaction; KEGG, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes