Abstract
Atrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of ischemic stroke and systemic arterial embolism. However, the risk factors or predictors of stroke in AF patients have not been clarified. Therefore, it is necessary to find effective diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Two datasets were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Differently expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between samples of atrial fibrillation without stroke and atrial fibrillation with stroke. Enrichment analysis of Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) by Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), construction and analysis of protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and significant module, and the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were performed. A total of 524 DEGs were common to both datasets. Analysis of KEGG pathways indicated that the top canonical pathways associated with DEGs were ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, endocytosis, spliceosome, and so on. Ten hub genes (SMURF2, CDC42, UBE3A, RBBP6, CDC5L, NEDD4L, UBE2D2, UBE2B, UBE2I, and MAPK1) were identified from the PPI network and were significantly associated with a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation and stroke (AFST). In summary, a total of 524 DEGs and 10 hub genes were identified between samples of atrial fibrillation without stroke and atrial fibrillation with stroke. These genes may serve as the target of early diagnosis or treatment of AF complicated by stroke.
Highlights
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a type of supraventricular tachyarrhythmia characterized by rapid and disordered atrial electrical activity [1]
Our own bioinformatics analysis showed that the ten genes SMURF2, CDC42, UBE3A, RBBP6, CDC5L, NEDD4L, UBE2D2, UBE2B, UBE2I, and MAPK1 were significantly and highly expressed in patients with AF complicated by stroke when compared with patients with simple AF without stroke
We speculate that these highly expressed genes, most prominently MAPK1 and UBE2D2, are likely to be involved in incidences of AF complicated by stroke
Summary
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a type of supraventricular tachyarrhythmia characterized by rapid and disordered atrial electrical activity [1]. The atrium loses effective contraction due to disordered electrical activity and the atrioventricular node presents diminished conduction to rapid atrial activation, resulting in an extremely irregular ventricular rhythm and a rapid or slow ventricular rate, which leads to decreased cardiac blood pumping function and mural thrombosis formation in the atria [2, 3]. Stroke is an acute cerebrovascular disease, which is a group of diseases that causes brain tissue damage due to the sudden rupture of blood vessels in the brain or vascular occlusion preventing blood from flowing into the brain [4, 5]. AF increases the risk of stroke, with incidence rates of 1.92% a year. The molecular mechanisms of strokes caused by AF are unclear [7]
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