AUTHOR=Lin Yixuan , Wang Fanjing , Cheng Lianzhi , Fang Zhaohui , Shen Guoming 

TITLE=Identification of Key Biomarkers and Immune Infiltration in Sciatic Nerve of Diabetic Neuropathy BKS-db/db Mice by Bioinformatics Analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2021.682005

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2021.682005

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is one of the chronic complications of diabetes which can cause severe harm to patients. In order to determine the key genes and pathways related to the pathogenesis of DN, we downloaded the microarray data set GSE27382 from Gene Expression Synthesis (GEO) and adopted bioinformatics methods for comprehensive analysis, including functional enrichment, construction of PPI networks, central genes screening, TFs-target interaction analysis and evaluation of immune infiltration characteristics.
A total of 318 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, among which 125 up-regulated DEGs were enriched in the mitotic nuclear division, extracellular region, immunoglobulin receptor binding and p53 signaling pathway while 193 down-regulated DEGs were enriched in ion transport, membrane, synapse, sodium channel activity and Retrograde endocannabinoid signaling. Importantly, we identified 5 central genes (Birc5, Bub1, Cdk1, Ccnb2 and Ccnb1), and KEGG pathway analysis showed that the 5 hub genes were focused on progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation, Cell cycle and p53 signaling pathway. The proportion of immune cells from DN tissue and normal group showed significant individual differences. In DN samples, T cells CD4 memory resting and Dendritic cells resting accounted for a higher proportion, and Macrophage M2 accounted for a lower proportion. In addition, all five central genes showed consistent correlation with immune cell infiltration levels.
 Our research identified key genes related to differential genes and immune infiltration related to the pathogenesis of DN and provided new diagnostic and potential therapeutic targets for DN.