GasCanBase
A Comprehensive Database for Gastric Cancer-associated Polymorphisms

Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer (GC), remains one of the most severe forms of cancer around the globe with the third-highest lethality and the fourth-highest morbidity rate. As reported by the GloboCan statistics in 2020, GC is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world having 10, 89, 103 new cases and 7, 68, 793 deaths in 2020. From a vast array of available Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) data on dbSNP database, we have identified and evaluated deleterious nsSNPs in 40 gastric cancer-associated genes. A total of 34,588 nsSNPs from 14,93,460 SNP of these 40 genes were extracted from the available SNP database. Based on their potential to affect the protein structure and function as determined by multiple in silico tools, only one nsSNP was chosen for each gastric cancer-associated gene. The damaging effect of these nsSNPs on their corresponding protein structure was examined by drug binding analysis as well as by measuring the difference between the wild-type proteins and the mutants in terms of energy minimization. A number of primers were designed and suitable restriction enzymes were designated for further experimental validation. A set of primers were experimentally validated using blood samples from gastric cancer patients. Based on our results this interactive database, the “GasCanBase” database has been developed. This will contribute greatly to our understanding of molecular epidemiology and the development of precise therapeutics for gastric cancer although further clinical studies are needed for more rigorous validation. "GasCanBase" database is an attempt to establish a comprehensive cornerstone for future research towards developing better therapeutics and discovering novel biomarkers against gastric cancer.