Fig. 1
From: SOX5 is involved in balanced MITF regulation in human melanoma cells
Workflow. We used a regression approach (based on Mixed Integer Linear Programming, MILP) to design a gene regulatory network model. The model aimed to predict MITF expression in order to find the regulators that best explain changes in MITF expression levels across different cell lines. For this, we used transcription factors known to bind at the promoter of MITF extracted from databases and the literature. After this, we performed wet-lab experiments, the effects of the predicted transcription factors (SOX5 and SOX10) were validated using transfection assays with siRNA against these transcription factors and MITF-promoter reporter assays. Finally, the clinical impact of MITF and its regulating transcription factors (SOX5, SOX10) was analyzed by investigating expression levels within melanoma tumor samples according to different clinically relevant parameters (non-survival versus survival; thin versus thick tumors)