Candidate agents for papillary thyroid cancer identified by gene expression analysis.

A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is needed to manage these patients effectively. Our objectives were to expand our understanding of this disease, and to identify biologically active small molecules capable to reverse PTC. We downloaded gene expression data of PTC from Gene Expression Omnibus database and employed computational bioinformatics analysis to compare gene expression patterns with normal tissues. Small molecules that induced inverse gene changes to the PTC were identified. A total of 2,154 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with a false discovery rate of 0.01 were identified. These 2,154 DEGs were significantly enriched in 17 pathways, including pathways associated with signal transduction, tumorigenesis and lipid or amino acid metabolism. In addition, we identified large amount of small molecules that capable to reverse PTC. We found a group of small molecules that can provide new ideas for the therapeutic studies in PTC. These drugs are clearly a direction that warrants additional consideration.