Discovering Novel Biomarkers Associated with the Pathogenesis of Psoriasis: Evidence from Bioinformatic Analysis

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate key biomarkers and their molecular pathogenesis in psoriasis. METHODS: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of datasets (GSE13355, GSE30999, and GSE106992) obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were identified using Venn diagram. Function and pathway enrichment analyses were performed. Protein–protein interaction (PPI) network and the hub genes were constructed. The correlation between normal tissue and infiltrating immune cells was analyzed by CIBERSORT. ROC analysis was performed to distinguish between skin lesion samples and skin non-lesion samples. Analyze the highest expression of single gene in the whole body within the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. Effect of CXCL8 expression level on proliferation, invasion, migration and apoptosis of HaCat cells was detected by qPCR. RESULTS: A total of 239 pairs of normal and lesional skin samples were downloaded. PPI network revealed a tight interaction among 197 DEGs. The GO enrichment analysis showed that these genes were markedly enriched in the “defense response to virus”, “type I interferon signaling pathway”, and “cell response to type I interferon” categories. The KEGG pathway analysis showed that the DEGs were mainly in the NOD-like receptor axis, interaction between cytokine and cytokine receptor and the IL−17 axis. PPI analysis showed that CXCL8 was the novel hub gene of psoriasis and correlated to 22 types of infiltrating immune cells. 6 miRNAs were predicted to be related to CXCL8. CXCL8 was most widely distributed in lymphoid tissues and plays a role in psoriatic inflammatory lesions by promoting cell proliferation, migration, and anti-apoptosis. CONCLUSION: CXCL8 plays a key role in psoriasis development. This study provided new insights into the exploration of molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets of psoriasis.