Investigation of Genes Associated With Atherosclerosis in Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Immune-dysregulated neutrophils characterized by upregulation of CXCL1 may be a potential factor in the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm and systemic lupus erythematosus

Background

The abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) incidence is closely related to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, the common mechanisms between AAA and SLE are still unknown. The purpose of this research was to examine the main molecules and pathways involved in the immunization process that lead to the co-occurrence of AAA and SLE through the utilization of quantitative bioinformatics analysis of publicly available RNA sequencing databases. Moreover, routine blood test information was gathered from 460 patients to validate the findings.

Materials and methods

Datasets of both AAA (GSE57691 and GSE205071) and SLE (GSE50772 and GSE154851) were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed using bioinformatic tools. To determine the functions of the common differentially expressed genes (DEGs), Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia analyses were conducted. Subsequently, the hub gene was identified through cytoHubba, and its validation was carried out in GSE47472 for AAA and GSE81622 for SLE. Immune cell infiltration analysis was performed to identify the key immune cells correlated with AAA and SLE, and to evaluate the correlation between key immune cells and the hub gene. Subsequently, the routine blood test data of 460 patients were collected, and the result of the immune cell infiltration analysis was further validated by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results

A total of 25 common DEGs were obtained, and three genes were screened by cytoHubba algorithms. Upon validation of the datasets, CXCL1 emerged as the hub gene with strong predictive capabilities, as evidenced by an area under the curve (AUC) > 0.7 for both AAA and SLE. The infiltration of immune cells was also validated, revealing a significant upregulation of neutrophils in the AAA and SLE datasets, along with a correlation between neutrophil infiltration and CXCL1 upregulation. Clinical data analysis revealed a significant increase in neutrophils in both AAA and SLE patients (p < 0.05). Neutrophils were found to be an independent factor in the diagnosis of AAA and SLE, exhibiting good diagnostic accuracy with AUC >0.7.

Conclusion

This study elucidates CXCL1 as a hub gene for the co-occurrence of AAA and SLE. Neutrophil infiltration plays a central role in the development of AAA and SLE and may serve to be a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target.