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Main Authors: Mathur, Kartavya, Jain, Shipra, Bajiya, Nisha, Kumar, Nishant, Raghava, Gajendra P. S.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11041
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author Mathur, Kartavya
Jain, Shipra
Bajiya, Nisha
Kumar, Nishant
Raghava, Gajendra P. S.
author_facet Mathur, Kartavya
Jain, Shipra
Bajiya, Nisha
Kumar, Nishant
Raghava, Gajendra P. S.
contents Colorectal cancer remains a major global health concern, with early detection being pivotal for improving patient outcomes. In this study, we leveraged high throughput methylation profiling of cellfree DNA to identify and validate diagnostic biomarkers for CRC. The GSE124600 study data were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus, as the discovery cohort, comprising 142 CRC and 132 normal cfDNA methylation profiles obtained via MCTA seq. After preprocessing and filtering, 97,863 CpG sites were retained for further analysis. Differential methylation analysis using statistical tests identified 30,791 CpG sites as significantly altered in CRC samples, where p is less than 0.05. Univariate scoring enabled the selection of top ranking features, which were further refined using multiple feature selection algorithms, including Recursive Feature Elimination, Sequential Feature Selection, and SVC L1. Various machine learning models such as Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machines, Random Forest, and Multi layer Perceptron were trained and tested using independent validation datasets. The best performance was achieved with an MLP model trained on 25 features selected by RFE, reaching an AUROC of 0.89 and MCC of 0.78 on validation data. Additionally, a deep learning based convolutional neural network achieved an AUROC of 0.78. Functional annotation of the most predictive CpG sites identified several genes involved in key cellular processes, some of which were validated for differential expression in CRC using the GEPIA2 platform. Our study highlights the potential of cfDNA methylation markers combined with ML and DL models for noninvasive and accurate CRC detection, paving the way for clinically relevant diagnostic tools.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_11041
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle In silico tool for identification of colorectal cancer from cell-free DNA biomarkers
Mathur, Kartavya
Jain, Shipra
Bajiya, Nisha
Kumar, Nishant
Raghava, Gajendra P. S.
Genomics
Colorectal cancer remains a major global health concern, with early detection being pivotal for improving patient outcomes. In this study, we leveraged high throughput methylation profiling of cellfree DNA to identify and validate diagnostic biomarkers for CRC. The GSE124600 study data were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus, as the discovery cohort, comprising 142 CRC and 132 normal cfDNA methylation profiles obtained via MCTA seq. After preprocessing and filtering, 97,863 CpG sites were retained for further analysis. Differential methylation analysis using statistical tests identified 30,791 CpG sites as significantly altered in CRC samples, where p is less than 0.05. Univariate scoring enabled the selection of top ranking features, which were further refined using multiple feature selection algorithms, including Recursive Feature Elimination, Sequential Feature Selection, and SVC L1. Various machine learning models such as Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machines, Random Forest, and Multi layer Perceptron were trained and tested using independent validation datasets. The best performance was achieved with an MLP model trained on 25 features selected by RFE, reaching an AUROC of 0.89 and MCC of 0.78 on validation data. Additionally, a deep learning based convolutional neural network achieved an AUROC of 0.78. Functional annotation of the most predictive CpG sites identified several genes involved in key cellular processes, some of which were validated for differential expression in CRC using the GEPIA2 platform. Our study highlights the potential of cfDNA methylation markers combined with ML and DL models for noninvasive and accurate CRC detection, paving the way for clinically relevant diagnostic tools.
title In silico tool for identification of colorectal cancer from cell-free DNA biomarkers
topic Genomics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11041