Developing a Novel Immune-Related Seven-Gene Signature and Immune Infiltration Pattern in Patients with COVID-19 and Cardiovascular Disease

作者：Yajuan Fu, Juan Zhang, Lingbo Xu, Hui Zhang, Shengchao Ma, Yujing Gao, Yideng Jiang · 发表于：Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3390/jcdd9120450 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis、COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies、interferon and immune responses

BACKGROUND: patients with pre-existence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) are vulnerable to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and COVID-19 will cause long-term burden of CVD. However, the common pathogenic mechanisms are not fully elucidated. More detailed knowledge of linking biological molecules and the role of immune signature would allow more valuable and specific clinical management. METHODS: the gene expression profiles of CVD and COVID-19 were retrieved from the GEO database. Common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened with the Limma R package and the WGCNA algorithm, and then functional enrichment analysis, protein-protein interaction network, hub genes, and small therapeutic molecules analyses were performed. The hub immune-related genes (HIRGs) were intersected, and their associations with immune cells, expressional correlation, evaluated performance, and potential signal pathways were further investigated. RESULTS: In total, 57 common DEGs were identified as a shared transcriptional signature between CVD and COVID-19, and 12 hub genes were screened using five topological algorithms. There are common altered immune responses in the response of these two diseases, and seven HIRGs, including C5AR1, MMP9, CYBB, FPR2, CSF1R, TLR2, and TLR4, were identified, with positive correlation to altered macrophages and neutrophils. Nine small molecular agents (SMAs) were detected as promising therapeutic drugs. These seven HIRGs mainly participated in the inflamma...