Comprehensive identification of immune-associated biomarkers based on network and mRNA expression patterns in membranous glomerulonephritis

BACKGROUND: Membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN) is the most common cause of nephrotic syndrome in adult patients. Despite extensive evidences suggested that many immune-related genes could serve as effective biomarkers in MGN, the potential has not been sufficiently understood because of most previous studies have concentrated on individual gene and not the entire interaction network. METHODS: Here, we integrated multiple levels of data containing immune-related genes, MGN-related genes, protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks and gene expression profiling data to construct an immune or MGN-directed neighbor network (IOMDN network) and an MGN-related genes-directed network (MGND network). RESULTS: Our analysis suggested that immune-related genes in the PPI network have special topological characteristics and expression pattern related to MGN. We also identified five network modules which showed tighter network structure and stronger correlation of expression. In addition, functional and drug target analyses of genes in modules indicated that the potential mechanism for MGN. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these results indicated that the strong associations between immune and MGN and showed the potential of immune-related genes as novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets for MGN. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12967-018-1586-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.