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PLoS One
. 2022 Jan 19;17(1):e0262737.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262737. eCollection 2022.
Identification of hub genes associated with COVID-19 and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis by integrated bioinformatics analysis
Qianyi Chen 1 , Shilin Xia 2 3 , Hua Sui 1 , Xueying Shi 1 2 , Bingqian Huang 1 2 , Tingxin Wang 1
Affiliations
- PMID: 35045126
- DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262737
Abstract
Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), emerged in late 2019, was caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The risk factors for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and COVID-19 are reported to be common. This study aimed to determine the potential role of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) common in IPF and COVID-19.
Materials and methods: Based on GEO database, we obtained DEGs from one SARS-CoV-2 dataset and five IPF datasets. A series of enrichment analysis were performed to identify the function of upregulated and downregulated DEGs, respectively. Two plugins in Cytoscape, Cytohubba and MCODE, were utilized to identify hub genes after a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Finally, candidate drugs were predicted to target the upregulated DEGs.
Results: A total of 188 DEGs were found between COVID-19 and IPF, out of which 117 were upregulated and 71 were downregulated. The upregulated DEGs were involved in cytokine function, while downregulated DEGs were associated with extracellular matrix disassembly. Twenty-two hub genes were upregulated in COVID-19 and IPF, for which 155 candidate drugs were predicted (adj.P.value < 0.01).
Conclusion: Identifying the hub genes aberrantly regulated in both COVID-19 and IPF may enable development of molecules, encoded by those genes, as therapeutic targets for preventing IPF progression and SARS-CoV-2 infections.