AUTHOR=Peng Shixiong , Zhang Teng , Zhang Sisi , Tang Qian , Yan Yang , Feng Hao 

TITLE=Integrated Bioinformatics and Validation Reveal IL1B and Its Related Molecules as Potential Biomarkers in Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.850993

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2022.850993

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=Background: The etiopathogenesis of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) hasn’t been fully understood. And there has been an extensive interest in the interaction between inflammatory dermatosis and pyroptosis. This study purposes to investigate the molecular mechanism of pyroptosis-related genes in CSU via bioinformatic ways and identify the potential key biomarker.
Methods: The RNA expression profile dataset of CSU, GSE72540, was utilized as the training set, and GSE57178 as the validation set. Differently expressed pyroptosis-related genes (DEPRGs), GO, KEGG and DO analyses were performed. The hub genes were explored by the protein–protein interaction analysis. Moreover, CIBERSORT was worked for estimating immune cell types and proportions. Then, we constructed a DEmRNA-miRNA-DElncRNA ceRNA network and a drug-gene interactions network. Finally, ELISA was worked for gene expression analysis.
Results: We recognized 17 DEPRGs, whose enrichment analyses showed that they were mostly enriched in inflammatory response and immunomodulation. And 5 hub genes (IL1B, TNF and IRF1 are upregulated, HMGB1 and P2RX7 are downregulated) were identified via PPI network and verified by validation set. Then immune infiltration analysis displayed that compared with normal tissue, CSU owned a significantly higher proportion of Mast cells activated, but lower proportion of T cells CD4 naive and so on. Furthermore, IL1B was statistically and positively associated with Mast cells activated in CSU, and SNHG3, the upstream factor of IL1B in the ceRNA we constructed, also related with Mast cells in CSU. Further analysis exhibited that the protein subcellular localization of IL1B was extracellular, according with its intercellular regulation role; IL1B was significantly correlated with key immune checkpoints; NOD-like receptor signaling pathway was the mainly involved pathway of IL1B by couple databases. What’s more, the result of ELISA of CSU patients was the same as the above analyses about IL1B. In addition, the drug-gene interactions network contained 15 potential therapeutic drugs targeting IL1B, and molecular docking might make this relationship viable.
Conclusion: ILB and its related molecules might play a key role in development of CUS and could be potential biomarkers in CSU.