Shu X, Chen XX, Kang XD, Ran M, Wang YL, Zhao ZK, Li CX. Identification of potential key molecules and signaling pathways for psoriasis based on weighted gene co-expression network analysis. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(18): 5965-5983 [PMID: 35949853 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i18.5965]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Cheng-Xin Li, Doctor, Department of Dermatology, The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. dr_xincheng@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Dermatology
Article-Type of This Article
Clinical and Translational Research
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Jun 26, 2022; 10(18): 5965-5983 Published online Jun 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i18.5965
Identification of potential key molecules and signaling pathways for psoriasis based on weighted gene co-expression network analysis
Xin Shu, Xiao-Xia Chen, Xin-Dan Kang, Min Ran, You-Lin Wang, Zhen-Kai Zhao, Cheng-Xin Li
Xin Shu, Department of Dermatology, The Third Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
Xin Shu, Chinese PLA Medical School, Beijing 100853, China
Xiao-Xia Chen, Department of Radiology, The Third Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
Xin-Dan Kang, Department of Comprehensive Surgical, The Second Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100089, China
Min Ran, Department of Endocrine, The Third Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
You-Lin Wang, Zhen-Kai Zhao, Cheng-Xin Li, Department of Dermatology, The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Author contributions: Shu X contributed to the conception and design; Li CX performed the administrative support; Wang YL and Kang XD provide materials and samples; Shu X, Ran M, and Chen XX contributed to the data collection and collation; Shu X and Zhao ZK contributed to the data analysis and interpretation; All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: All experimental procedures were approved by the ethics committee of Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. S2021-012-01.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Cheng-Xin Li, Doctor, Department of Dermatology, The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. dr_xincheng@163.com
Received: February 17, 2022 Peer-review started: February 17, 2022 First decision: March 29, 2022 Revised: March 30, 2022 Accepted: May 22, 2022 Article in press: May 22, 2022 Published online: June 26, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Previous studies have found that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important regulatory role in the progression of various diseases. Currently, miRNAs studies in psoriasis and dermatology are relatively new.
Research motivation
Although psoriasis is widespread and has significant negative impact on patients’ life quality, it has not yet been fully diagnosed and treated.
Research objectives
Identification of key miRNAs in psoriasis is helpful to elucidate the molecular mechanism of psoriasis.
Research methods
Differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs) and differentially expressed miRNAs were screened out by limma R package. DEmRNAs were analyzed for Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomics functional enrichment. The “Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA)” R package was used to analyze the co-expression network of all miRNAs. We constructed miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks based on identified hub miRNAs.
Research results
We identified a large number of DEmRNAs and screened possible signaling pathways related to psoriasis, for example, toll-like receptor signaling pathway, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, and chemokine signaling pathway. Ten hub miRNAs were identified by WGCNA. Eight hub miRNAs predicted the corresponding target mRNAs. Ninety-seven negatively regulated miRNA-mRNA pairs were involved in the miRNA-mRNA regulatory network, for example, hsa-miR-21-5p-CLDN8, hsa-miR-30a-3p-IL-1B and hsa-miR-181a-5p/hsa-miR-30c-2-3p-CXCL9.
Research conclusions
The identification of potential key molecular markers and signaling pathways provides potential research directions for further understanding the molecular mechanisms of psoriasis.
Research perspectives
This study provide new research ideas for the prevention and treatment of psoriasis in the future.
