Identification of significant immune-related genes for epilepsy via bioinformatics analysis
Xiaodan Luo, Tao Xiang, Hongmi Huang, Lin Ye, Yifei Huang, Yuan Wu
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, but its underlying mechanism has remained obscure, and the role of immune-related genes (IRGs) in epilepsy have not yet been investigated. Therefore, in this study, we explored the association between IRGs and epilepsy. METHODS: An IRG list was collected from the ImmPort database. The gene expression profiles of GSE143272 were collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between epilepsy and normal samples were analyzed, and the intersections between IRGs and DEGs were identified using the VennDiagram package, with the intersected genes subjected to further analysis. Enrichment function for intersected genes were performed, constructed a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network via the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) database, and the hub genes (top 10) of the PPI network were calculated by the cytoHubba plug-in in Cytoscape. The top correlated genes were selected to perform correlation analysis with immune cells infiltration and expression levels. Finally, we performed validation of the top correlated genes transcriptional expression levels using an animal model. RESULTS: and activated mast cells (R=0.25, P=0.019) and neutrophils (R=0.3, P=0.0043), and a negative correlation with T cells gamma delta (R=-0.25, P=0.018). The levels of CXCL1 expression were significantly lower in epilepsy patients than those in normal samples. CONCLUSIONS: have a significant influence on epilepsy via regulation of immune cells infiltration.