Identification of key target genes and biological pathways in multiple sclerosis brains using microarray data obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database

Abstract

ABSTRACTObjective: The purpose of this study was to investigate critical genes in multiple sclerosis (MS) using microarray data from brain tissue in MS.Materials: The expression profile data set of MS (GSE38010) downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database contained gene information from five plaque tissues from MS brains and two white matter tissues from healthy controls. An R package was applied to process these raw chip data. Gene Ontology (GO) functional analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis were performed to investigate interactions between differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in MS brain tissues.Results: This study identified a total of 1065 DEGs, including 530 up-regulated genes and 535 down-regulated genes, in MS brain tissue samples compared to those in normal white matter tissue samples. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses showed that the up-regulated DEGs were mainly related to neuron development, neuron projection morphogenesis and neuron differentiation. Furthermore, the down-regulated DEGs were largely related to axon ensheathment, ensheathment of neurons and nervous system development. Seven key genes were found as hub genes in the maintenance of the PPI network.Conclusion: Several key target genes and their GO and KEGG pathway enrichment identified in the present study may serve as feasible targets for MS therapies.