SPMLMI: predicting lncRNA–miRNA interactions in humans using a structural perturbation method

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)–microRNA (miRNA) interactions are quickly emerging as important mechanisms underlying the functions of non-coding RNAs. Accordingly, predicting lncRNA–miRNA interactions provides an important basis for understanding the mechanisms of action of ncRNAs. However, the accuracy of the established prediction methods is still limited. In this study, we used structural consistency to measure the predictability of interactive links based on a bilayer network by integrating information for known lncRNA–miRNA interactions, an lncRNA similarity network, and an miRNA similarity network. In particular, by using the structural perturbation method, we proposed a framework called SPMLMI to predict potential lncRNA–miRNA interactions based on the bilayer network. We found that the structural consistency of the bilayer network was higher than that of any single network, supporting the utility of bilayer network construction for the prediction of lncRNA–miRNA interactions. Applying SPMLMI to three real datasets, we obtained areas under the curves of 0.9512 ± 0.0034, 0.8767 ± 0.0033, and 0.8653 ± 0.0021 based on 5-fold cross-validation, suggesting good model performance. In addition, the generalizability of SPMLMI was better than that of the previously established methods. Case studies of two lncRNAs (i.e., SNHG14 and MALAT1) further demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the method. Therefore, SPMLMI is a feasible approach to identify novel lncRNA–miRNA interactions underlying complex biological processes.