Identification of predictors for neurological outcome after cardiac arrest in peripheral blood mononuclear cells through integrated bioinformatics analysis and machine learning

Neurological prognostication after cardiac arrest (CA) is important to avoid pursuing futile treatments for poor outcome and inappropriate withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for good outcome. To predict neurological outcome after CA through biomarkers in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, four datasets were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. GSE29546 and GSE74198 were used as training datasets, while GSE92696 and GSE34643 were used as verification datasets. The intersection of differentially expressed genes and hub genes from multiscale embedded gene co-expression network analysis (MEGENA) was utilized in the machine learning screening. Key genes were identified using support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE), least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) logistic regression, and random forests (RF). The results were validated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. An mRNA-miRNA network was constructed. The distribution of immune cells was evaluated using cell-type identification by estimating relative subsets of RNA transcripts (CIBERSORT). Five biomarkers were identified as predictors for neurological outcome after CA, with an area under the curve (AUC) greater than 0.7: CASP8 and FADD-like apoptosis regulator (CFLAR), human protein kinase X (PRKX), miR-483-5p, let-7a-5p, and let-7c-5p. Interestingly, the combination of CFLAR minus PRKX showed an even higher AUC of 0.814. The mRNA-miRNA network consisted of 30 nodes and 76 edges. Statistical differences were found in immune cell distribution, including neutrophils, NK cells active, NK cells resting, T cells CD4 memory activated, T cells CD4 memory resting, T cells CD8, B cells memory, and mast cells resting between individuals with good and poor neurological outcome after CA. In conclusion, our study identified novel predictors for neurological outcome after CA. Further clinical and laboratory studies are needed to validate our findings. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10142-023-01016-0.