Pancreatic Cancer Database: an integrative resource for pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the world. The etiology of pancreatic cancer is heterogeneous with a wide range of alterations that have already been reported at the level of the genome, transcriptome, and proteome. The past decade has witnessed a large number of experimental studies using high-throughput technology platforms to identify genes whose expression at the transcript or protein levels is altered in pancreatic cancer. Based on expression studies, a number of molecules have also been proposed as potential biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of this deadly cancer. Currently, there are no repositories which provide an integrative view of multiple Omics data sets from published research on pancreatic cancer. Here, we describe the development of a web-based resource, Pancreatic Cancer Database (http://www.pancreaticcancerdatabase.org), as a unified platform for pancreatic cancer research. PCD contains manually curated information pertaining to quantitative alterations in miRNA, mRNA, and proteins obtained from small-scale as well as high-throughput studies of pancreatic cancer tissues and cell lines. We believe that PCD will serve as an integrative platform for scientific community involved in pancreatic cancer research.

Keywords: biomarker; body fluids; chronic pancreatitis; secreted.

Figure 1. A screenshot of the primary information page for mesothelin in Pancreatic Cancer Database. (A) The query, browse and comments page for mesothelin are shown. (B) The molecule page for mesothelin with the mRNA and protein level alterations along with the cancer subtype, level of regulation, experimental assay used, PubMed citation, and external links to publicly available resources.

Figure 2. Strategy for annotation of molecular alterations in PCD. Articles published on pancreatic cancer are screened to identify the molecules (mRNA, miRNA, and protein) reported to be differentially expressed by ≥2-fold in pancreatic cancer tissues/cell lines when compared with their normal counterparts. The screened articles are curated manually to catalog the mRNA, protein, and miRNA level alterations. Information pertaining to the pancreatic cancer subtype, level of regulation (up or downregulation), the experimental method used, and the PubMed citation are provided for each molecule. The presence of the molecules in any body fluids and/or plasma membrane is also included, whenever available.