Bioinformatics Analysis for Identifying Pertinent Pathways and Genes in Sepsis

PURPOSE: Sepsis becomes the main death reason in hospitals with rising incidence, causing a growing economic and medical burden. However, the genes related to the pathogenesis and prognosis of sepsis are still unclear, which is a problem that needs to be solved urgently. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Gene expression profiles of GSE69528 were obtained from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Limma software package got employed to search for differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) were used for enrichment analysis. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was built by the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database. RESULTS: We screened 101 DEGs, containing 81 upregulated DEGs and 20 downregulated DEGs. GO analysis demonstrated that the upregulated DEGs were chiefly concentrated in negative regulation of response to interferon-gamma and regulation of granulocyte differentiation. KEGG analysis revealed that the pathways of upregulated DEGs were concentrated in prion diseases, complement and coagulation cascades, and Staphylococcus aureus infection. The PPI network constructed by upregulated DEGs contained 67 nodes (proteins) and 110 edges (interactions). Analysis of bioinformatics results showed that CEACAM8, MPO, and RETN were hub genes of sepsis. CONCLUSION: Our analysis reveals a series of signal pathways and key genes related to the mechanism of sepsis, which are promising biotargets and biomarkers of sepsis.