Hsu Chueh-Hsuan, Chen Shuo-Chueh, Yu Yung-Luen
Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, 406040, Taiwan.
School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, 406040, Taiwan.
J Transl Autoimmun. 2025 Aug 4;11:100304. doi: 10.1016/j.jtauto.2025.100304. eCollection 2025 Dec.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients exhibit a heightened risk of developing lung cancer, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study aimed to identify shared genetic factors linking SLE and LC using publicly available transcriptomic data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Through integrated differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we identified five genes consistently upregulated in both SLE and lung cancer. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed that these shared genes were enriched in inflammatory pathways, particularly those involving interferon-alpha, interferon-gamma, and general inflammatory responses. We applied least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression to pinpoint potential diagnostic biomarkers and identified two key candidates: AIM2 and SLC26A8. These biomarkers demonstrated robust diagnostic performance with area under the ROC curve (AUC) values exceeding 0.75 in both training and validation cohorts. Immune infiltration and survival analyses using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) further supported their clinical relevance. Notably, high AIM2 expression was significantly associated with poorer overall survival in female lung adenocarcinoma patients (P = 0.03), and SLC26A8 expression was significantly linked to survival outcomes only in patients with a history of smoking (P = 0.01). These findings are particularly meaningful in SLE, where most patients are female and smoking is a known risk factor. Our study enhances the understanding of autoimmune-driven carcinogenesis and opens new avenues for precision medicine strategies in managing patients with SLE at risk for lung cancer.
系统性红斑狼疮(SLE)患者患肺癌的风险增加,但其潜在的分子机制仍知之甚少。本研究旨在利用基因表达综合数据库(GEO)中公开的转录组数据,确定与SLE和肺癌相关的共同遗传因素。通过综合差异表达基因(DEG)分析和加权基因共表达网络分析(WGCNA),我们鉴定出在SLE和肺癌中均持续上调的五个基因。基因集富集分析(GSEA)显示,这些共同基因在炎症途径中富集,特别是那些涉及α干扰素、γ干扰素和一般炎症反应的途径。我们应用最小绝对收缩和选择算子(LASSO)回归来确定潜在的诊断生物标志物,并鉴定出两个关键候选基因:AIM2和SLC26A8。这些生物标志物在训练和验证队列中的ROC曲线下面积(AUC)值均超过0.75,显示出强大的诊断性能。使用癌症基因组图谱(TCGA)进行的免疫浸润和生存分析进一步支持了它们的临床相关性。值得注意的是,高AIM2表达与女性肺腺癌患者较差的总生存期显著相关(P = 0.03),而SLC26A8表达仅在有吸烟史的患者中与生存结果显著相关(P = 0.01)。这些发现对于SLE尤其有意义,因为大多数SLE患者是女性,且吸烟是已知的风险因素。我们的研究增进了对自身免疫驱动的致癌作用的理解,并为管理有肺癌风险的SLE患者的精准医学策略开辟了新途径。