Identification of the key genes and pathways involved in B cells in primary Sjögren’ s syndrome

Primary Sjögren’ s syndrome (pSS) is a relatively common autoimmune disease, which mainly involves the exocrine glands, causing dry eye, dryness of mouth, fatigue and pain in the joints, thus severely affecting the normal lives of patients. B cell populations are considered to play an important role in their pathogenesis and pSS patients are generally characterized by exhibiting biological signs of B cell activation. Moreover, another important characterized change in the peripheral blood of pSS patients is found to be the decreased number of circulating memory B cells. However, the mechanisms underlying the B cell activation and the decreased level of circulating memory B cells in pSS patients are still unclear. Therefore, we identified key genes and pathways involved in B cells in pSS through a combination of several bioinformatic approaches including Cell-type Identification By Estimating Relative Subsets Of RNA Transcripts (CIBERSORT) and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) using gene expression data of pSS patients and controls from an open database Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). The results may provide some novel insights into the pathogenesis of pSS. Moreover, we constructed and validated a diagnostic model for pSS by using the expression patterns of these key genes, which may assist clinicians in diagnosing pSS.