Differential Expression Analysis of Kruppel Like Factors 6 and Antagonistic Effect Study of Cinnamic Acid - An in Silico Approach

Abstract

Objective: Krüppel-like factor 6 (KLF6) is the significant member of a DNA binding proteins which mainly involved in the transcriptional regulation as well various promising cellular processes such as cell proliferation and differentiation, cytokine signal-based inflammatory responses, and pluripotency activity of cells. Our computational studies involve KLF6 differential expression in breast cancer tissues based on web resources such as Oncomine and cBioportal.
 Methods: Oncomine and TCGA data-based CBioportal were the databases used to explore the KLF6 expression, and KLF6 was underexpressed in many of the breast cancer tissues than normal breast tissues. Major breast cancer datasets such as Curtis and TCGA supported the clinical-pathological role of KLF6, mutational frequencies. Further prognosis analysis was carried out using Survexpress and it revealed the survival rate and risk group categorization. Thus, KLF6 was considered as a therapeutic target and natural compound cinnamic acid antagonistic efficacy was analyzed based on molecular docking and simulation studies.
 Results: Systematic analysis of KLF6 gene expression in breast cancer would be helpful in exploring aspects of KLF6 as the potential drug target as well as prognostic disease marker identification. Molecular docking and dynamic study were carried out to evaluate the intermolecular interaction between the cinnamic acid and KLF6 and the docked complex stability after 5ns.
 Conclusion: Thus, the computational study demonstrated the cinnamic acid role as an anticancer compound to combat the overexpression of KLF6 to combat cancer. Further, in vitro and in vivo studies need to be carried out to know the insights of antagonistic effect.