Establishing a GRU-GCN coordination-based prediction model for miRNA-disease associations

Abstract Background miRNAs (microRNAs) are endogenous RNAs with lengths of 18 to 24 nucleotides and play critical roles in gene regulation and disease progression. Although traditional wet-lab experiments provide direct evidence for miRNA-disease associations, they are often time-consuming and compl...

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Main Authors: Kai-Cheng Chuang, Ping-Sung Cheng, Yu-Hung Tsai, Meng-Hsiun Tsai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-01-01
Series:BMC Genomic Data
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-024-01293-z
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author Kai-Cheng Chuang
Ping-Sung Cheng
Yu-Hung Tsai
Meng-Hsiun Tsai
author_facet Kai-Cheng Chuang
Ping-Sung Cheng
Yu-Hung Tsai
Meng-Hsiun Tsai
author_sort Kai-Cheng Chuang
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background miRNAs (microRNAs) are endogenous RNAs with lengths of 18 to 24 nucleotides and play critical roles in gene regulation and disease progression. Although traditional wet-lab experiments provide direct evidence for miRNA-disease associations, they are often time-consuming and complicated to analyze by current bioinformatics tools. In recent years, machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques are powerful tools to analyze large-scale biological data. Hence, developing a model to predict, identify, and rank connections in miRNAs and diseases can significantly enhance the precision and efficiency in investigating the relationships between miRNAs and diseases. Results In this study, we utilized miRNA-disease association data obtained by biotechnological experiments to develop a DL model for miRNA-disease associations. To improve the accuracy of prediction in this model, we introduced two labeling strategies, weight-based and majority-based definitions, to classify miRNA-disease associations. After preprocessing, data was trained with a novel model combining gated recurrent units (GRU) and graph convolutional network (GCN) to predict the level of miRNA-disease associations. The miRNA-disease association datasets were from HMDD (the Human miRNA Disease Database) and categorized by two distinct labeling approaches, weight-based definitions and majority-based definitions. We classified the miRNA-disease associations into three groups, “upregulated”, “downregulated” and “nonspecific”, by regression analysis and multiclass classification. This GRU-GCN coordinated model achieved a robust area under the curve (AUC) score of 0.8 in all datasets, demonstrating the efficacy in predicting potential miRNA-disease relationships. Conclusions By introducing innovative label-preprocessing methods, this study addressed the relationships between miRNAs and diseases, and improved the ambiguity of the results in different experiments. Based on these refined label definitions, we developed a DL-based model to refine and predict the results of associations between miRNAs and diseases. This model offers a valuable tool for complementing traditional experimental methods and enhancing our understanding of miRNA-related disease mechanisms.
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spelling doaj-art-e17ae6370555429890e279a951c32fee2025-01-19T12:40:31ZengBMCBMC Genomic Data2730-68442025-01-0126111110.1186/s12863-024-01293-zEstablishing a GRU-GCN coordination-based prediction model for miRNA-disease associationsKai-Cheng Chuang0Ping-Sung Cheng1Yu-Hung Tsai2Meng-Hsiun Tsai3Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing UniversityDepartment of Management Information Systems, National Chung Hsing UniversityDepartment of Management Information Systems, National Chung Hsing UniversityDepartment of Management Information Systems, National Chung Hsing UniversityAbstract Background miRNAs (microRNAs) are endogenous RNAs with lengths of 18 to 24 nucleotides and play critical roles in gene regulation and disease progression. Although traditional wet-lab experiments provide direct evidence for miRNA-disease associations, they are often time-consuming and complicated to analyze by current bioinformatics tools. In recent years, machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques are powerful tools to analyze large-scale biological data. Hence, developing a model to predict, identify, and rank connections in miRNAs and diseases can significantly enhance the precision and efficiency in investigating the relationships between miRNAs and diseases. Results In this study, we utilized miRNA-disease association data obtained by biotechnological experiments to develop a DL model for miRNA-disease associations. To improve the accuracy of prediction in this model, we introduced two labeling strategies, weight-based and majority-based definitions, to classify miRNA-disease associations. After preprocessing, data was trained with a novel model combining gated recurrent units (GRU) and graph convolutional network (GCN) to predict the level of miRNA-disease associations. The miRNA-disease association datasets were from HMDD (the Human miRNA Disease Database) and categorized by two distinct labeling approaches, weight-based definitions and majority-based definitions. We classified the miRNA-disease associations into three groups, “upregulated”, “downregulated” and “nonspecific”, by regression analysis and multiclass classification. This GRU-GCN coordinated model achieved a robust area under the curve (AUC) score of 0.8 in all datasets, demonstrating the efficacy in predicting potential miRNA-disease relationships. Conclusions By introducing innovative label-preprocessing methods, this study addressed the relationships between miRNAs and diseases, and improved the ambiguity of the results in different experiments. Based on these refined label definitions, we developed a DL-based model to refine and predict the results of associations between miRNAs and diseases. This model offers a valuable tool for complementing traditional experimental methods and enhancing our understanding of miRNA-related disease mechanisms.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-024-01293-zmiRNAsGRU (gated recurrent unit)GCN (graph convolutional network)miRNA-disease assosications
spellingShingle Kai-Cheng Chuang
Ping-Sung Cheng
Yu-Hung Tsai
Meng-Hsiun Tsai
Establishing a GRU-GCN coordination-based prediction model for miRNA-disease associations
BMC Genomic Data
miRNAs
GRU (gated recurrent unit)
GCN (graph convolutional network)
miRNA-disease assosications
title Establishing a GRU-GCN coordination-based prediction model for miRNA-disease associations
title_full Establishing a GRU-GCN coordination-based prediction model for miRNA-disease associations
title_fullStr Establishing a GRU-GCN coordination-based prediction model for miRNA-disease associations
title_full_unstemmed Establishing a GRU-GCN coordination-based prediction model for miRNA-disease associations
title_short Establishing a GRU-GCN coordination-based prediction model for miRNA-disease associations
title_sort establishing a gru gcn coordination based prediction model for mirna disease associations
topic miRNAs
GRU (gated recurrent unit)
GCN (graph convolutional network)
miRNA-disease assosications
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-024-01293-z
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