Identification of four hub genes in venous thromboembolism via weighted gene coexpression network analysis.
BMC Cardiovasc Disord 2021;
21:577. [PMID:
34861826 PMCID:
PMC8642897 DOI:
10.1186/s12872-021-02409-4]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
The pathogenic mechanisms of venous thromboembolism (VT) remain to be defined. This study aimed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that could serve as potential therapeutic targets for VT.
Methods
Two human datasets (GSE19151 and GSE48000) were analyzed by the robust rank aggregation method. Gene ontology and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway enrichment analyses were conducted for the DEGs. To explore potential correlations between gene sets and clinical features and to identify hub genes, we utilized weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) to build gene coexpression networks incorporating the DEGs. Then, the levels of the hub genes were analyzed in the GSE datasets. Based on the expression of the hub genes, the possible pathways were explored by gene set enrichment analysis and gene set variation analysis. Finally, the diagnostic value of the hub genes was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis in the GEO database.
Results
In this study, we identified 54 upregulated and 10 downregulated genes that overlapped between normal and VT samples. After performing WGCNA, the magenta module was the module with the strongest negative correlation with the clinical characteristics. From the key module, FECH, GYPA, RPIA and XK were chosen for further validation. We found that these genes were upregulated in VT samples, and high expression levels were related to recurrent VT. Additionally, the four hub genes might be highly correlated with ribosomal and metabolic pathways. The ROC curves suggested a diagnostic value of the four genes for VT.
Conclusions
These results indicated that FECH, GYPA, RPIA and XK could be used as promising biomarkers for the prognosis and prediction of VT.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-021-02409-4.
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