Department of Medical Genetics and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Student Research Committee, Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
BMC Pediatr. 2021 Dec 11;21(1):566. doi: 10.1186/s12887-021-03003-5.
Kawasaki disease (KD) is a pediatric inflammatory disorder causes coronary artery complications. The disease overlapping manifestations with a set of symptomatically like diseases such as bacterial and viral infections, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Henoch-Schönlein purpura, infection of unknown etiology, group-A streptococcal and adenoviral infections, and incomplete KD could lead to misdiagnosis of the disease.
In the present study, we applied weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify network modules of co-expressed genes in GSE73464 and also, limma package was used to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in KD expression arrays composed of GSE73464, GSE18606, GSE109351, and GSE68004. By merging the results of WGCNA and limma, we detected hub genes. Then, analyzed the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 16 patients and 8 control subjects using Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) to evaluate the previous results.
We assessed the diagnostic potency of the screened genes by plotting the area under curve (AUC). We finally identified 2 genes CASP5(Caspase 5) and CR1(Complement C3b/C4b Receptor 1) which were shown to potentially discriminate KD from other similar diseases and also from healthy people.
The results of RT-PCR and AUC confirmed the diagnostic potentials of two suggested biomarkers for KD.
川崎病（KD）是一种儿科炎症性疾病，可导致冠状动脉并发症。该疾病与一系列症状相似的疾病重叠，如细菌和病毒感染、幼年特发性关节炎、过敏性紫癜、病因不明的感染、A 组链球菌和腺病毒感染以及不典型 KD，可能导致误诊。
本研究应用加权基因共表达网络分析（WGCNA）鉴定 GSE73464 中基因共表达网络模块，并使用 limma 包鉴定由 GSE73464、GSE18606、GSE109351 和 GSE68004 组成的 KD 表达阵列中的差异表达基因（DEGs）。通过合并 WGCNA 和 limma 的结果，我们检测了枢纽基因。然后，使用实时聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）分析 16 名患者和 8 名对照者的外周血单核细胞（PBMCs），以评估之前的结果。
我们通过绘制曲线下面积（AUC）来评估筛选基因的诊断效力。我们最终确定了 2 个基因 CASP5（半胱天冬酶 5）和 CR1（补体 C3b/C4b 受体 1），它们可能有助于将 KD 与其他类似疾病以及健康人区分开来。
RT-PCR 和 AUC 的结果证实了这两种 KD 候选生物标志物的诊断潜力。
