Pyroptosis-Related Gene Signature and Expression Patterns in the Deterioration of Atherosclerosis

BACKGROUND: Pyroptosis has been shown to be involved in the overall process of atherosclerosis. This study was aimed at investigating pyroptosis-related gene expression patterns in atherosclerosis and their diagnostic significance. METHODS AND RESULTS: In GSE100927, fifty-four pyroptosis-related genes were identified. Between atherosclerotic plaques and normal samples, the expression patterns of pyroptosis-related genes were significantly different. In order to construct a pyroptosis-related risk score signature (PRSS), the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) was combined with multivariate logistic regression to screen twelve genes. The diagnostic efficiency of the PRSS performed well in GSE43292, as shown by the results of receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs). Consensus clustering identified two expression patterns of pyroptosis-related genes in different statuses of atherosclerotic plaque in GSE163154. The biological behavior of the different clusters was examined by the gene set variation analysis (GSVA). The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses revealed that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the two clusters were enriched in the immune response. The Cytoscape software was used to construct protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks for hub gene screening. Following that, the Drug Gene Interaction Database (DGIdb) was utilized to find 47 possible medicines and chemical compounds that interact with hub genes in atherosclerotic plaques. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that pyroptosis-related genes contribute to the progression of atherosclerosis and may serve as biomarkers in clinical diagnosis as well as novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of AS.