GKLOMLI: a link prediction model for inferring miRNA–lncRNA interactions by using Gaussian kernel-based method on network profile and linear optimization algorithm

Background: The limited knowledge of miRNA–lncRNA interactions is considered as an obstruction of revealing the regulatory mechanism. Accumulating evidence on Human diseases indicates that the modulation of gene expression has a great relationship with the interactions between miRNAs and lncRNAs. However, such interaction validation via crosslinking-immunoprecipitation and high-throughput sequencing (CLIP-seq) experiments that inevitably costs too much money and time but with unsatisfactory results. Therefore, more and more computational prediction tools have been developed to offer many reliable candidates for a better design of further bio-experiments. Methods: In this work, we proposed a novel link prediction model based on Gaussian kernel-based method and linear optimization algorithm for inferring miRNA–lncRNA interactions (GKLOMLI). Given an observed miRNA–lncRNA interaction network, the Gaussian kernel-based method was employed to output two similarity matrixes of miRNAs and lncRNAs. Based on the integrated matrix combined with similarity matrixes and the observed interaction network, a linear optimization-based link prediction model was trained for inferring miRNA–lncRNA interactions. Results: To evaluate the performance of our proposed method, k-fold cross-validation (CV) and leave-one-out CV were implemented, in which each CV experiment was carried out 100 times on a training set generated randomly. The high area under the curves (AUCs) at 0.8623 ± 0.0027 (2-fold CV), 0.9053 ± 0.0017 (5-fold CV), 0.9151 ± 0.0013 (10-fold CV), and 0.9236 (LOO-CV), illustrated the precision and reliability of our proposed method. Conclusion: GKLOMLI with high performance is anticipated to be used to reveal underlying interactions between miRNA and their target lncRNAs, and deciphers the potential mechanisms of the complex diseases.