Screening and Bioinformatics Analysis of Crucial Gene of Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation Based on GEO Database

Background and objectives: In clinical practice, we observed that the prognoses of patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation were worse than those of patients with only heart failure or atrial fibrillation. The study aims to get a better understanding of the common pathogenesis of the two diseases and find new therapeutic targets. Materials and Methods: We downloaded heart failure datasets and atrial fibrillation datasets from the gene expression omnibus database. The common DEGs (differentially expressed genes) in heart failure and atrial fibrillation were identified by a series of bioinformatics methods. To better understand the functions and possible pathways of DEGs, we performed Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses. Results: We identified 22 up-regulated genes and 14 down-regulated genes in two datasets of heart failure and 475 up-regulated and 110 down-regulated genes in atrial fibrillation datasets. In addition, two co-upregulated (FRZB, SFRP4) and three co-downregulated genes (ENTPPL, AQP4, C1orf105) were identified. GO enrichment results showed that these common differentially expressed genes were mainly concentrated in the signal regulation of the Wnt pathway. Conclusions: We found five crucial genes in heart failure and atrial fibrillation, which may be potential therapeutic targets for patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation.