Screening of periodontitis-related genes and immune cells based on an integrated bioinformatics analysis

BACKGROUND: Periodontitis is a serious health issue; however, there are few reports on periodontitis and immune related. The study sought to analyze differences in gene expression between periodontitis patients before and after treatment using bioinformatics techniques. METHODS: The GSE6751 data set was screened for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and immune-related genes using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, a gene expression data analysis tool. Enrichment, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction, and immune cell correlation analyses were also performed on these genes. RESULTS: A total of 327 DEGs in periodontitis were identified, including 149 upregulated genes, 178 downregulated genes, and 27 immune-related genes. The immune-related DEGs were mainly involved in granulocyte chemotaxis, granulocyte migration, leukocyte chemotaxis, cytokine receptor binding, Toll-like receptor (TLR) binding, the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and protein kinase b signaling pathway, viral protein interactions with cytokines and cytokine receptors, the Ras-proximate-1 signaling pathway, the Ras signaling pathway, natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity, and immune response related pathways. IFNG and TLR2 were the key core genes in the constructed PPI network. CONCLUSIONS: The pathogenesis of periodontitis is closely related to changes in the expression of genes, such as PF4, ANGPT1, TNFRSF1B, IFNG and TLR2, among which IFNG and TLR2 are potential therapeutic targets for periodontitis.