scholarly journals Integrative Analysis of Genomics and Transcriptome Data to Identify Regulation Networks in Female Osteoporosis

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianzuo Zhang ◽  
Kun Chen ◽  
Xiaoxuan Chen ◽  
Nikolaos Kourkoumelis ◽  
Guoyuan Li ◽  
...  

Background: Osteoporosis is a highly heritable skeletal muscle disease. However, the genetic mechanisms mediating the pathogenesis of osteoporosis remain unclear. Accordingly, in this study, we aimed to clarify the transcriptional regulation and heritability underlying the onset of osteoporosis.Methods: Transcriptome gene expression data were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Microarray data from peripheral blood monocytes of 73 Caucasian women with high and low bone mineral density (BMD) were analyzed. Differentially expressed messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were identified. Differences in BMD were then attributed to several gene modules using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). LncRNA/mRNA regulatory networks were constructed based on the WGCNA and subjected to functional enrichment analysis.Results: In total, 3,355 mRNAs and 999 lncRNAs were identified as differentially expressed genes between patients with high and low BMD. The WGCNA yielded three gene modules, including 26 lncRNAs and 55 mRNAs as hub genes in the blue module, 36 lncRNAs and 31 mRNAs as hub genes in the turquoise module, and 56 mRNAs and 30 lncRNAs as hub genes in the brown module. JUN and ACSL5 were subsequently identified in the modular gene network. After functional pathway enrichment, 40 lncRNAs and 16 mRNAs were found to be related to differences in BMD. All three modules were enriched in metabolic pathways. Finally, mRNA/lncRNA/pathway networks were constructed using the identified regulatory networks of lncRNAs/mRNAs and pathway enrichment relationships.Conclusion: The mRNAs and lncRNAs identified in this WGCNA could be novel clinical targets in the diagnosis and management of osteoporosis. Our findings may help elucidate the complex interactions between transcripts and non-coding RNAs and provide novel perspectives on the regulatory mechanisms of osteoporosis.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pejman Morovat ◽  
Saman Morovat ◽  
Arash M. Ashrafi ◽  
Shahram Teimourian

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide, which has a high mortality rate and poor treatment outcomes with yet unknown molecular basis. It seems that gene expression plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) can interact with microRNAs (miRNAs) to regulate gene expression in various malignancies by acting as competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs). However, the potential pathogenesis roles of the ceRNA network among circRNA/miRNA/mRNA in HCC are unclear. In this study, first, the HCC circRNA expression data were obtained from three Gene Expression Omnibus microarray datasets (GSE164803, GSE94508, GSE97332), and the differentially expressed circRNAs (DECs) were identified using R limma package. Also, the liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) miRNA and mRNA sequence data were retrieved from TCGA, and differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMIs) and mRNAs (DEGs) were determined using the R DESeq2 package. Second, CSCD website was used to uncover the binding sites of miRNAs on DECs. The DECs' potential target miRNAs were revealed by conducting an intersection between predicted miRNAs from CSCD and downregulated DEMIs. Third, some related genes were uncovered by intersecting targeted genes predicted by miRWalk and targetscan online tools with upregulated DEGs. The ceRNA network was then built using the Cytoscape software. The functional enrichment and the overall survival time of these potential targeted genes were analyzed, and a PPI network was constructed in the STRING database. Network visualization was performed by Cytoscape, and ten hub genes were detected using the CytoHubba plugin tool. Four DECs (hsa_circ_0000520, hsa_circ_0008616, hsa_circ_0070934, hsa_circ_0004315) were obtained and six miRNAs (hsa-miR-542-5p, hsa-miR-326, hsa-miR-511-5p, hsa-miR-195-5p, hsa-miR-214-3p, and hsa-miR-424-5p) which are regulated by the above DECs were identified. Then 543 overlapped genes regulated by six miRNAs mentioned above were predicted. Functional enrichment analysis showed that these genes are mostly associated with cancer regulation functions. Ten hub genes (TTK،AURKB, KIF20A، KIF23، CEP55، CDC6، DTL، NCAPG، CENPF، PLK4) have been screened from the PPI network of the 204 survival-related genes. KIF20A, NCAPG, TTK, PLK4, and CDC6 were selected for the highest significant p-values. In the end, a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory axis was established for five final selected hub genes. This study implies the potential pathogenesis of the obtained network and proposes that the two DECs (has_circ_0070934 and has_circ_0004315) may be important prognostic factor for HCC.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong Sun ◽  
Haiyang Yu ◽  
Jianhua Fu

Abstract Background: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) remains a severe respiratory complication of preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). However, its pathogenesis has been unclear. Bioinformatics analysis, which can help us explore genetic alternations and recognize latent diagnostic biomarkers, has recently promoted the comprehension of the molecular mechanisms underlying disease occurrence and development. Methods: In this study, we identified key genes and miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks in BPD in preterm infants to elucidate the pathogenesis of BPD. We downloaded and analyzed miRNA and gene expression microarray datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO). Differentially expressed miRNA (DEMs) and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained through NetworkAnalyst. We performed pathway enrichment analysis using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery program (DAVID), Gene Ontology (GO), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). Then we used the STRING to establish protein–protein interactions and the Cytoscape tool to establish miRNA–mRNA regulatory networks. Results: We identified 19 significant DEMs and 140 and 33 significantly upregulated and downregulated DEGs, respectively. Functional enrichment analysis indicated that significant DEGs were associated with the antigen processing and presentation, and B-cell receptor signaling pathways in BPD. Key DEGs, such as CD19, CD79B, MS4A1, and FCGR2B were selected as hub genes in PPI networks. Conclusions: In this study, we screened out 19 DEMs that might play important roles in the regulatory networks of BPD. Higher expression of miRNAs such as miR-15b-5p, hsa-miR-32-5p, miR-3613-3p, and miR-33a-5p and lower expression of miRNAs such as miR-3960, miR-425-5p, and miR-3202 might be correlated with the process of BPD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 8997-9015
Author(s):  
Ahmed Hammad ◽  
◽  
Mohamed Elshaer ◽  
Xiuwen Tang ◽  
◽  
...  

<abstract> <p>Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Biomarker discovery is critical to improve CRC diagnosis, however, machine learning offers a new platform to study the etiology of CRC for this purpose. Therefore, the current study aimed to perform an integrated bioinformatics and machine learning analyses to explore novel biomarkers for CRC prognosis. In this study, we acquired gene expression microarray data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The microarray expressions GSE103512 dataset was downloaded and integrated. Subsequently, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified and functionally analyzed via Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Enrichment of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). Furthermore, protein protein interaction (PPI) network analysis was conducted using the STRING database and Cytoscape software to identify hub genes; however, the hub genes were subjected to Support Vector Machine (SVM), Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and survival analyses to explore their diagnostic values. Meanwhile, TCGA transcriptomics data in Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) database and the pathology data presented by in the human protein atlas (HPA) database were used to verify our transcriptomic analyses. A total of 105 DEGs were identified in this study. Functional enrichment analysis showed that these genes were significantly enriched in biological processes related to cancer progression. Thereafter, PPI network explored a total of 10 significant hub genes. The ROC curve was used to predict the potential application of biomarkers in CRC diagnosis, with an area under ROC curve (AUC) of these genes exceeding 0.92 suggesting that this risk classifier can discriminate between CRC patients and normal controls. Moreover, the prognostic values of these hub genes were confirmed by survival analyses using different CRC patient cohorts. Our results demonstrated that these 10 differentially expressed hub genes could be used as potential biomarkers for CRC diagnosis.</p> </abstract>


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Zhang ◽  
Bingye Zhang ◽  
Di Meng ◽  
Chunlin Ge

Abstract Background The incidence of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) has risen in recent years, and it has become a significant health burden worldwide. However, the mechanisms underlying tumorigenesis and progression of this disease remain largely unknown. An increasing number of studies have demonstrated crucial biological functions of epigenetic modifications, especially DNA methylation, in CCA. The present study aimed to identify and analyze methylation-regulated differentially expressed genes (MeDEGs) involved in CCA tumorigenesis and progression by bioinformatics analysis. Methods The gene expression profiling dataset (GSE119336) and gene methylation profiling dataset (GSE38860) were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially methylated genes (DMGs) were identified using the limma packages of R and GEO2R, respectively. The MeDEGs were obtained by overlapping the DEGs and DMGs. Functional enrichment analyses of these genes were then carried out. Protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed using STRING and visualized in Cytoscape to determine hub genes. Finally, the results were verified based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Results We identified 98 hypermethylated, downregulated genes and 93 hypomethylated, upregulated genes after overlapping the DEGs and DMGs. These genes were mainly enriched in the biological processes of the cell cycle, nuclear division, xenobiotic metabolism, drug catabolism, and negative regulation of proteolysis. The top nine hub genes of the PPI network were F2, AHSG, RRM2, AURKB, CCNA2, TOP2A, BIRC5, PLK1, and ASPM. Moreover, the expression and methylation status of the hub genes were significantly altered in TCGA. Conclusions Our study identified novel methylation-regulated differentially expressed genes (MeDEGs) and explored their related pathways and functions in CCA, which may provide novel insights into a further understanding of methylation-mediated regulatory mechanisms in CCA.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Binfeng Liu ◽  
Ang Li ◽  
Hongbo Wang ◽  
Jialin Wang ◽  
Gongwei Zhai ◽  
...  

The Corneal wound healing results in the formation of opaque corneal scar. In fact, millions of people around the world suffer from corneal scars, leading to loss of vision. This study aimed to identify the key changes of gene expression in the formation of opaque corneal scar and provided potential biomarker candidates for clinical treatment and drug target discovery. We downloaded Gene expression dataset GSE6676 from NCBI-GEO, and analyzed the Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs), Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment pathway analyses, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. A total of 1377 differentially expressed genes were identified and the result of Functional enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) identification and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were performed. In total, 7 hub genes IL6 (interleukin-6), MMP9 (matrix metallopeptidase 9), CXCL10 (C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10), MAPK8 (mitogen-activated protein kinase 8), TLR4 (toll-like receptor 4), HGF (hepatocyte growth factor), EDN1 (endothelin 1) were selected. In conclusion, the DEGS, Hub genes and signal pathways identified in this study can help us understand the molecular mechanism of corneal scar formation and provide candidate targets for the diagnosis and treatment of corneal scar.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Li ◽  
Wenye Zhu ◽  
Chu Wang ◽  
Yuanyuan Zheng ◽  
Shibo Sun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Asthma is a heterogeneous disease that can be divided into four inflammatory phenotypes: eosinophilic asthma (EA), neutrophilic asthma (NA), mixed granulocytic asthma (MGA), and paucigranulocytic asthma (PGA). While research has mainly focused on EA and NA, the understanding of PGA is limited. In this study, we aimed to identify underlying mechanisms and hub genes of PGA. Methods Based on the dataset from Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO), weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA), differentially expressed genes (DEGs) analysis and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis were conducted to construct a gene network and to identify key gene modules and hub genes. Functional enrichment analyses were performed to investigate the biological process, pathways and immune status of PGA. The hub genes were validated in a separate dataset. Results Compared to non-PGA, PGA had a different gene expression pattern, in which 449 genes were differentially expressed. One gene module significantly associated with PGA was identified. Intersection between the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the genes from the module that were most relevant to PGA were mainly enriched in inflammation and immune response regulation. The single sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA) suggested a decreased immune infiltration and function in PGA. Finally six hub genes of PGA were identified, including ADCY2, CXCL1, FPRL1, GPR109B, GPR109A and ADCY3, which were validated in a separate dataset of GSE137268. Conclusions Our study characterized distinct gene expression patterns, biological processes and immune status of PGA and identified hub genes, which may improve the understanding of underlying mechanism and provide potential therapeutic targets for PGA.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 1025-1041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengcheng Wang ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Wei Zhao ◽  
Chunyang Shang ◽  
Xian Jiang ◽  
...  

Background/Aims: Recent evidence has shown that some long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in various biological processes. However, the regulatory mechanism of lncRNA in gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. Methods: We reannotated the GC gene expression profile into a lncRNA-mRNA biphasic profile and integrated the microRNA target data to construct a global GC triple network. A further clustering and random walk with restart analyses was performed on the triple network from the level of topology analyses. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to determine expression of lncRNA RP11-363E7.4. Kaplan-Meier analyses was performed to evaluate the prognostic value of lncRNA RP11-363E7.4. Results: We constructed a gastric cancer lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network (GCLMN) including six lncRNAs, 332 mRNAs, and 3,707 edges. For the shared lncRNA RP11-363E7.4, the interacting gene and microRNA functional enrichment studies implied that lncRNA RP11-363E7.4 might function as a new regulator in GC. The expression of lncRNA RP11-363E7.4 was downregulated compared with that of paracarcinoma tissues in five GC samples. High expression of lncRNA RP11-363E7.4 was found to be correlated to better overall survival (OS) for GC patients. Conclusions: This study focused on GC lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks, and found that lncRNA RP11-363E7.4 was a new GC risk lncRNA, which might provide novel insight into a better understanding of the pathogenesis of GC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Jamal ◽  
Abdul Saboor Khan ◽  
Hina Iqbal Bangash ◽  
Tian Xie ◽  
Tianbao Song ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Lung cancer (LUCA) is the leading cause of cancer-related morbidities and mortalities globally. Despite the recent advancements in lung cancer research, understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying LUCA tumorigenesis and prognosis remains suboptimal. This study aims to identify the candidate biomarkers and therapeutic genes in lung cancer. Methods In this study, gene expression profiles of GSE30219, GSE33532, GSE32863 and GSE43458 were downloaded from GEO. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in LUAD tissue and normal lung tissue with a p-value < 0.05 and a |log fold change (FC)| >1.0 were identified by GEO2R. For functional enrichment analysis of these DEGs, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed with KOBAS and DAVID tools. Next, the candidate hub genes were filtered out with Cytoscape using CytoHubba plugin. These hub genes were validated by (the Cancer Genome Atlas) TCGA-based gene expression analysis, protein-protein network interaction (PPI) analysis, survival analysis. Moreover, the expression of these genes in cancer and normal tissue was assessed in the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. In addition, miRNA network of the hub genes was constructed. Finally, DGIdb database was used to check the drug-targeting potentials of the hub genes. Results a total of 332 overlapping differentially expressed genes (DEGs) including 73 upregulated and 259 downregulated, respectively were identified. GO analysis revealed that the DEGs were principally regulating various cancer-associated functions and pathways. The module analysis revealed 55 hub genes in 4 modules. The survival analysis through Kaplan-Meier (KM) plotter indicated that the altered expression of these genes resulted in the poor overall survival (OS) of LUCA patients. Moreover, these genes show a differential expression on both protein and mRNA level in cancer patient compared to the normal. In addition, in addition, 6 potential microRNAs (miRNAs) interacting with hub genes were identified. Finally, a list of 117 therapeutic small molecules was tabulated that could facilitate LUCA treatment. Conclusions the findings of this study may help in the development of novel and reliable biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic intervention for LUAD.


PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e9462
Author(s):  
Dao wei Zhang ◽  
Shenghai Zhang ◽  
Jihong Wu

Purpose Glaucoma is the second commonest cause of blindness. We assessed the gene expression profile of astrocytes in the optic nerve head to identify possible prognostic biomarkers for glaucoma. Method A total of 20 patient and nine normal control subject samples were derived from the GSE9944 (six normal samples and 13 patient samples) and GSE2378 (three normal samples and seven patient samples) datasets, screened by microarray-tested optic nerve head tissues, were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. We used a weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify coexpressed gene modules. We also performed a functional enrichment analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis. Genes expression was represented by boxplots, functional geneset enrichment analyses (GSEA) were used to profile the expression patterns of all the key genes. Then the key genes were validated by the external dataset. Results A total 8,606 genes and 19 human optic nerve head samples taken from glaucoma patients in the GSE9944 were compared with normal control samples to construct the co-expression gene modules. After selecting the most common clinical traits of glaucoma, their association with gene expression was established, which sorted two modules showing greatest correlations. One with the correlation coefficient is 0.56 (P = 0.01) and the other with the correlation coefficient is −0.56 (P = 0.01). Hub genes of these modules were identified using scatterplots of gene significance versus module membership. A functional enrichment analysis showed that the former module was mainly enriched in genes involved in cellular inflammation and injury, whereas the latter was mainly enriched in genes involved in tissue homeostasis and physiological processes. This suggests that genes in the green–yellow module may play critical roles in the onset and development of glaucoma. A LASSO regression analysis identified three hub genes: Recombinant Bone Morphogenetic Protein 1 gene (BMP1), Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene (DMD) and mitogens induced GTP-binding protein gene (GEM). The expression levels of the three genes in the glaucoma group were significantly lower than those in the normal group. GSEA further illuminated that BMP1, DMD and GEM participated in the occurrence and development of some important metabolic progresses. Using the GSE2378 dataset, we confirmed the high validity of the model, with an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve of 85%. Conclusion We identified several key genes, including BMP1, DMD and GEM, that may be involved in the pathogenesis of glaucoma. Our results may help to determine the prognosis of glaucoma and/or to design gene- or molecule-targeted drugs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Liao ◽  
Pinhu Liao

Abstract Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is caused by uncontrolled inflammation, and the activation of alveolar macrophages (AM) is involved in pathophysiologic procedures. The present study aimed to identify key AM genes and pathways and try to provide potential targets for prognosis and early intervention in ARDS. Methods: The mRNA expression profile of GSE89953 was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The LIMMA package in R software was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and the clusterProfiler package was used for functional enrichment and pathway analyses. A protein–protein interaction network of DEGs was constructed to identify hub genes via the STRING database and Cytoscape software. Hub gene expression was validated using differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) obtained from the ProteomeXchange datasets to screen potential biomarkers. Results: A total of 166 DEGs (101 up-regulated and 65 down-regulated) were identified. The up-regulated DEGs were mainly enriched in regulation of the ERK1 and ERK2 cascade, response to interferon-gamma, cell chemotaxis, and migration in biological processes. In the KEGG pathway analysis, up-regulated DEGs were mainly involved in rheumatoid arthritis, cytokine–cytokine receptor interactions, phagosome, and the chemokine signaling pathway. The 12 hub genes identified included GZMA, MPO, PRF1, CXCL8, ELANE, GZMB, SELL, APOE, SPP1, JUN, CD247, and CCL2. Conclusion: SPP1 was consistently differentially expressed in both DEGs and DEPs. SPP1 could be a potential biomarker for ARDS.


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