Zou Hao, Huang Changrui, Feng Qinqi, Yu Bang, Liu Jian, Shu Xinyang, Nie Xiaolu, Zhang Hongchun, Zou Xiaohui
Graduate School of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
National Center for Respiratory Medicine, National Centre for Integrative Chinese and Western Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Pulmonary Diseases, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
Front Genet. 2024 Nov 26;15:1483098. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1483098. eCollection 2024.
Wind-cold (WC) and Wind-heat (WH) are common syndromes of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), presenting different clinical features, but the transcriptomic changes associated with these syndromes remained unclear.
Patients with WC and WH syndromes were recruited from outpatient unit, pharyngeal swabs were collected for pathogen detection. Peripheral blood samples were obtained on day 1 and day 6, with healthy volunteers as controls. Transcriptome sequencing was performed to identify differentially expressed genes and pathways associated with the two syndromes. Marker genes for each syndrome were identified, and a machine learning classifier was developed.
A total of 124 samples from 34 WC, 30 WH patients, and 16 health controls were included in this study. No significant differences in etiological spectrum were observed between the syndromes. Both syndromes showed distinct gene expression profiles compared to health control. Gene enrichment analysis indicated that TGF-β and Wnt/β -catenin pathways were downregulated in the WH. The oxidative phosphorylation pathways were downregulated in WC cohort compared to the WH cohort. As the URTIs improved from day 1 to day 6, oxidative phosphorylation pathway activity returned to normal levels. The marker genes for WC and WH syndromes were identified and a random forest classifier was built, achieving an accuracy of 0.88.
WC and WH syndromes demonstrated distinct gene expression profiles, supporting more precise TCM diagnosis. WC syndrome is marked by mitochondrial dysfunction, while WH syndrome is characterized by downregulated TGF-β and Wnt/β-catenin pathways.
风寒和风热是中医上呼吸道感染（URTIs）的常见证型，呈现出不同的临床特征，但与这些证型相关的转录组变化仍不清楚。
从门诊招募风寒证和风热证患者，采集咽拭子进行病原体检测。在第1天和第6天采集外周血样本，以健康志愿者作为对照。进行转录组测序以鉴定与这两种证型相关的差异表达基因和通路。确定每种证型的标记基因，并开发一种机器学习分类器。
本研究共纳入34例风寒证、30例风热证患者和16例健康对照的124份样本。两种证型之间在病因谱上未观察到显著差异。与健康对照相比，两种证型均显示出明显不同的基因表达谱。基因富集分析表明，风热证中TGF-β和Wnt/β -连环蛋白通路下调。与风热证队列相比，风寒证队列中氧化磷酸化通路下调。随着上呼吸道感染从第1天到第6天有所改善，氧化磷酸化通路活性恢复到正常水平。确定了风寒证和风热证的标记基因，并构建了随机森林分类器，准确率达到0.88。
风寒证和风热证表现出明显不同的基因表达谱，支持更精确的中医诊断。风寒证以线粒体功能障碍为特征，而风热证以TGF-β和Wnt/β -连环蛋白通路下调为特征。
