Neurogenetics Department, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Sci Rep. 2023 Feb 2;13(1):1934. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-29054-5.
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rheumatic disease characterised by vasculopathy, inflammation and fibrosis. Its aetiopathogenesis is still unknown, and the pathways/mechanisms of the disease are not clarified. This study aimed to perform in silico analysis of the already Mass Spectrometry (MS)-based discovered biomarkers of SSc to extract possible pathways/mechanisms implicated in the disease. We recorded all published candidate MS-based found biomarkers related to SSc. We then selected a number of the candidate biomarkers using specific criteria and performed pathway and cellular component analyses using Enrichr. We used PANTHER and STRING to assess the biological processes and the interactions of the recorded proteins, respectively. Pathway analysis extracted several pathways that are associated with the three different stages of SSc pathogenesis. Some of these pathways are also related to other diseases, including autoimmune diseases. We observe that these biomarkers are located in several cellular components and implicated in many biological processes. STRING analysis showed that some proteins interact, creating significant clusters, while others do not display any evidence of an interaction. All these data highlight the complexity of SSc, and further investigation of the extracted pathways/biological processes and interactions may help study the disease from a different angle.
系统性硬化症（SSc）是一种以血管病变、炎症和纤维化为特征的风湿性疾病。其病因发病机制尚不清楚，疾病的途径/机制也不清楚。本研究旨在对已基于质谱（MS）发现的 SSc 生物标志物进行计算机分析，以提取可能与疾病相关的途径/机制。我们记录了所有已发表的与 SSc 相关的候选 MS 发现的生物标志物。然后，我们使用特定标准选择了一些候选生物标志物，并使用 Enrichr 进行途径和细胞成分分析。我们使用 PANTHER 和 STRING 分别评估记录蛋白的生物过程和相互作用。途径分析提取了与 SSc 发病机制的三个不同阶段相关的几个途径。其中一些途径也与其他疾病有关，包括自身免疫性疾病。我们观察到这些生物标志物位于几个细胞成分中，并涉及许多生物过程。STRING 分析显示，一些蛋白质相互作用，形成显著的簇，而另一些则没有显示出任何相互作用的证据。所有这些数据突出了 SSc 的复杂性，对提取的途径/生物过程和相互作用的进一步研究可能有助于从不同角度研究该疾病。
