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. 2020 Nov 11:11:572194.
doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.572194. eCollection 2020.

Identification of Common Differentially Expressed Genes and Potential Therapeutic Targets in Ulcerative Colitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Yueying Chen  1 , Hanyang Li  1 , Lijie Lai  1 , Qi Feng  2 , Jun Shen  1
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Identification of Common Differentially Expressed Genes and Potential Therapeutic Targets in Ulcerative Colitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Yueying Chen et al. Front Genet. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Ulcerative colitis (UC) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) with similar symptoms and common genomics. However, the relationship between UC and RA has not been investigated thoroughly. Therefore, this study aimed to establish the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and potential therapeutic targets in UC and RA. Three microarray datasets (GSE38713, GSE1919, and GSE12251) were selected from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database for analysis. We used R software to identify the DEGs and performed enrichment analyses. Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) and Cytoscape software were used to construct the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and identify the hub genes. A regulatory network based on the constructed PPI was generated using StarBase and PROMO databases. We identified a total of 1542 and 261 DEGs in UC and RA. There were 169 common DEGs identified in both UC and RA, including 63 upregulated genes (DEGs1) and nine downregulated genes (DEGs2). The Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses of DEGs1 and DEGs2 in the PPI network revealed that the genes enriched were involved in immunity. A total of 45 hub genes were selected based on high scores of correlation; three hub genes (SRGN, PLEK, and FCGR3B) were found to be upregulated in UC and RA, and downregulated in UC patients with response to infliximab treatment. The identification of novel DEGs and hub genes in the current study contributes to a novel perception for latent functional mechanisms and presents potential prognostic indicators and therapeutic targets in UC and RA.

Keywords: bioinformatical analysis; differentially expressed genes; hub genes; rheumatoid arthritis; ulcerative colitis.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow diagram of the study design.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among UC and RA. 63 upregulated DEGs (A) and 9 downregulated DEGs (B) expressed both in UC and RA. GO analyses of DEGs independently in UC (C) and RA (D) with adujust P-value.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Based on database STRING and Cytoscape software, PPI networks of the DEGs1 and DEGs2 were constructed. The red point represents upregulated genes, and blue point represents downregulated genes.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Modular analyses of PPI found five key modules (A). GO (B) and KEGG (C) enrichment analyses of 39 genes in these modules with P-value.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Hub gene selection and analysis performed by cytohubba. The score of hub genes was based on the EPC Algorithm (A). Pearson correlation analysis was used to calculate the correlation of hub genes (B).
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Multi-factor regulation network of SRGN, PLEK, and FCGR3B was constructed by starBase and PROMO database.
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