Identifying the pattern of immune related cells and genes in the peripheral blood of ischemic stroke

Abstract

Background Ischemic stroke (IS) is the second leading cause of death worldwide which is a serious hazard to human health. Evidence suggests that the immune system plays a key role in the pathophysiology of IS. However, the precisely immune related mechanisms were still not been systematically understood. Methods In this study, we aim to identify the immune related modules and genes that might play vital role in the occurrence and development of IS by using the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Meanwhile, we applied a kind of deconvolution algorithm to reveal the proportions of 22 subsets of immune cells in the blood samples. Results There were total 128 IS patients and 67 healthy control samples in the three Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. Under the screening criteria, 1082 DEGs (894 up-regulated and 188 down-regulated) were chosen for further analysis. A total of 11 clinically significant modules were identified, from which immune-related hub modules and hub genes were further explored. Finally, 16 genes were selected as real hub genes for further validation analysis. Furthermore, these CIBERSORT results suggest that detailed analysis of the immune subtype distribution pattern has the potential to enhance clinical prediction and to identify candidates for immunotherapy. More specifically, we identified that neutrophil emerge as a promising target for IS therapies. Conclusions In the present study, we investigated the immune related gene expression modules, in which the SLAMF1, IL7R and NCF4 may be novel therapeutic targets to promote functional and histological recovery after ischemic stroke. Furthermore, these hub genes and neutrophils may become important biological targets in the drug screening and drug designing.

Influence of BMI on adenosine deaminase and stroke outcomes in mechanical thrombectomy subjects

“…As part of our ongoing BACTRAC study, our group has reported that using machine learning analysis, the gene expression of IL-7 is associated with infarct and edema volume ( Martha SR et al., 2020 ). Both IL7 and IL7R have been reported on in the context to ischemic stroke and prior studies have found plasma levels of both IL7 and IL7R were significantly lower in stroke cohorts as compared to controls ( Oberheiden et al., 2012 ; Li et al., 2020 ). Oncostatin M (OSM) is a cytokine belonging to the IL-6 family that is typically released by monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, and T lymphocytes under inflammatory conditions ( Hermanns, 2015 ).…”

Identification of a three-gene-based prognostic model in multiple myeloma using bioinformatics analysis

“…The main advantage of this method is that it can cluster genes into co-expression modules, as well as build a bridge between gene expression changes and sample characteristics. Thus, WGCNA has been widely used in various malignant and non-malignant diseases ( Chen et al, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2019 ; Chen et al, 2018 ; Li et al, 2020a ; Zheng et al, 2020 ). In cancer research, more and more researchers have applied WGCNA for developing new prognostic biomarkers ( Xu et al, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2019 ; Chen et al, 2018 ).…”

MYC overexpression predicts poor prognosis and correlates with immune infiltration in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

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