Chen Jinkun, Sun Ruohan, Jin Di, Yang Quan, Yang He, Long Yu, Li Lixian
Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
Brain Sci. 2022 Aug 30;12(9):1156. doi: 10.3390/brainsci12091156.
Epilepsy is a multifactorial neurological disorder with recurrent epileptic seizures. Current research stresses both inflammatory and autoimmune conditions as enablers in the pathophysiological process of epilepsy. In view of the growing concern about the role of adipocytokines in antiepileptic and modulating immune responses, we aimed to investigate the relevance of the adipocytokine signaling pathway in the pathological process of epilepsy and its impacts on peripheral immune characteristics. In this study, expression profiles of 142 peripheral blood samples were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Adipocytokine pathway-related genes were screened out by feature selection using machine-learning algorithms. A nomogram was then constructed and estimated for the efficacy of diagnosis. Cluster analysis was employed for the recognization of two distinct epilepsy subtypes, followed by an estimation of the immune cell infiltration levels using single-sample gene-set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA). The biological characteristics were analyzed by functional enrichment analysis. The aberrant regulation of adipocytokine signaling pathway was found in the peripheral blood of patients with epilepsy. Twenty-one differently expressed adipocytokine pathway-related genes were identified and five (RELA, PRKAB1, TNFRSF1A, CAMKK2, and CPT1B) were selected to construct a nomogram. Subsequent validations of its forecasting ability revealed that this model has satisfactory predictive value. The immune cell infiltration degrees, such as those of innate immune cells and lymphocytes, were found to significantly correlate to the levels of adipocytokine pathway-related genes. Additionally, 239 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified and their biological functions were mainly enriched in the regulation of the immune response. In conclusion, our results confirmed the predictive value of adipocytokine pathway-related genes for epilepsy and explored their effects on immune infiltration, thereby improving our understanding of the pathogenesis of epilepsy and providing assistance in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.
癫痫是一种具有反复发作性癫痫发作的多因素神经疾病。当前研究强调炎症和自身免疫状况在癫痫病理生理过程中起到的促成作用。鉴于对脂肪细胞因子在抗癫痫和调节免疫反应中作用的关注度不断提高,我们旨在研究脂肪细胞因子信号通路在癫痫病理过程中的相关性及其对外周免疫特征的影响。在本研究中,从基因表达综合数据库(GEO)下载了142份外周血样本的表达谱。使用机器学习算法通过特征选择筛选出脂肪细胞因子通路相关基因。然后构建列线图并评估其诊断效能。采用聚类分析识别两种不同的癫痫亚型,随后使用单样本基因集富集分析(ssGSEA)评估免疫细胞浸润水平。通过功能富集分析对生物学特征进行分析。发现在癫痫患者外周血中脂肪细胞因子信号通路存在异常调节。鉴定出21个差异表达的脂肪细胞因子通路相关基因,并选择5个(RELA、PRKAB1、TNFRSF1A、CAMKK2和CPT1B)构建列线图。随后对其预测能力的验证表明该模型具有令人满意的预测价值。发现免疫细胞浸润程度,如固有免疫细胞和淋巴细胞的浸润程度,与脂肪细胞因子通路相关基因的水平显著相关。此外,鉴定出239个差异表达基因(DEG),其生物学功能主要富集于免疫反应的调节。总之,我们的结果证实了脂肪细胞因子通路相关基因对癫痫的预测价值,并探索了它们对免疫浸润的影响,从而增进了我们对癫痫发病机制的理解,并为癫痫的诊断和治疗提供帮助。