Discovery of a transcriptomic core of genes shared in 8 primary retinoblastoma with a novel detection score analysis

Purpose Expression microarrays are powerful technology that allows large-scale analysis of RNA profiles in a tissue; these platforms include underexploited detection scores outputs. We developed an algorithm using the detection score, to generate a detection profile of shared elements in retinoblastoma as well as to determine its transcriptomic size and structure. Methods We analyzed eight briefly cultured primary retinoblastomas with the Human transcriptome array 2.0 (HTA2.0). Transcripts and genes detection scores were determined using the Detection Above Background algorithm (DABG). We used unsupervised and supervised computational tools to analyze detected and undetected elements; WebGestalt was used to explore functions encoded by genes in relevant clusters and performed experimental validation. Results We found a core cluster with 7,513 genes detected and shared by all samples, 4,321 genes in a cluster that was commonly absent, and 7,681 genes variably detected across the samples accounting for tumor heterogeneity. Relevant pathways identified in the core cluster relate to cell cycle, RNA transport, and DNA replication. We performed a kinome analysis of the core cluster and found 4 potential therapeutic kinase targets. Through analysis of the variably detected genes, we discovered 123 differentially expressed transcripts between bilateral and unilateral cases. Conclusions This novel analytical approach allowed determining the retinoblastoma transcriptomic size, a shared active transcriptomic core among the samples, potential therapeutic target kinases shared by all samples, transcripts related to inter tumor heterogeneity, and to determine transcriptomic profiles without the need of control tissues. This approach is useful to analyze other cancer or tissue types.