Role of functional genomics in identifying cancer drug resistance and overcoming cancer relapse
Elham Omer Mahgoub,
William C. Cho,
Majid Sharifi,
Mojtaba Falahati,
Hojjat Alizadeh Zeinabad,
Hany E. Mare,
Anwarul Hasan
Affiliations
Elham Omer Mahgoub
College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, 2713, Qatar; Corresponding author.
William C. Cho
Department of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China
Majid Sharifi
Department of Tissue Engineering, School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, 3614773947, Iran
Mojtaba Falahati
Department of Nanotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Hojjat Alizadeh Zeinabad
Apoptosis Research Centre, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
Hany E. Mare
Department of Cytology and Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35116, Egypt
Anwarul Hasan
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, 2713, Qatar; Biomedical Research Center, Qatar University, Doha, 2713, Qatar; Corresponding author. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, 2713, Qatar.
Functional genomics is an emerging field focused on elucidating the functions of genes or proteins, which can help solve challenges related to reliable cancer therapy. One of the main challenges currently faced by cancer therapy is the variations in the number of mutations in patients, leading to drug resistance and cancer relapses. Drug intrinsic or acquired resistance, is generally associated with most cancer relapses. There are advanced tools that can help identify the mutant genes in cancer tissues causing cancer drug resistance (CDR). Such tools include but are not limited to DNA and RNA sequencing as well assynthetic lethality gene screen (CRISPR)-based diagnosis. This review discusses the role of functional genomics in understanding CDR and finding tools for discovering drug target genes for cancer therapy.
