The main obstacle to the successful treatment of
ovarian cancer is the development of drug resistance to combined
chemotherapy. Among all the factors associated with drug resistance, DNA methylation apparently plays a critical role. In this study, we performed an integrative analysis of the 26
DNA-methylated genes associated with drug resistance in
ovarian cancer, and the genes were further evaluated by comprehensive bioinformatics analysis including gene/
protein interaction, biological process enrichment and annotation. The results from the
protein interaction analyses revealed that at least 20 of these 26 methylated genes are present in the protein interaction network, indicating that they interact with each other, have a correlation in function, and may participate as a whole in the regulation of
ovarian cancer drug resistance. There is a direct interaction between the
phosphatase and
tensin homolog (PTEN) gene and at least half of the other genes, indicating that PTEN may possess core regulatory functions among these genes. Biological process enrichment and annotation demonstrated that most of these methylated genes were significantly associated with apoptosis, which is possibly an essential way for these genes to be involved in the regulation of multidrug resistance in
ovarian cancer. In addition, a comprehensive analysis of clinical factors revealed that the methylation level of genes that are associated with the regulation of drug resistance in
ovarian cancer was significantly correlated with the prognosis of
ovarian cancer. Overall, this study preliminarily explains the potential correlation between the genes with DNA methylation and drug resistance in
ovarian cancer. This finding has significance for our understanding of the regulation of resistant
ovarian cancer by methylated genes, the treatment of
ovarian cancer, and improvement of the prognosis of
ovarian cancer.