Identification of Molecular Subtypes and Key Gene of Pulmonary Fibrosis Through Gene Expression Profiles

Abstract

Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) secondary to Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF) is characterized by high morality and mortality worldwide. Moreover, the lack of approved drugs for PH in PF patients highlights the imperative need for a better understanding of the pathophysiology and molecular mechanisms underlying PH in PF. However, little is known about its etiology. To gain a molecular insight into its development, we performed molecular characterization based on the dataset composed of PF samples from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) algorithm classified all samples into two subgroups, followed by key module identification by weighted gene co-expression analysis (WGCNA). The protein–protein network was further constructed and hub gene was distinguished via the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm. Immune cell infiltration analysis displayed a significant difference in the level of immune cell infiltration of several immune cells between the two subgroups. Taken together, these results might expand our knowledge of the molecular and immune characteristics of PF and provide potential target for PF treatment.