No abstract

Background: Asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases in children. CD4+T cell plays a key role in the immune response which affects the pathogenesis of asthma. Genetic level of CD4+T cells on childhood allergic asthma remains unclear. In our study, we aimed to identify potential different expressed genes (DEGs) and pathways related to childhood allergic asthma by performing bioinformatics analysis of dataset.Methods: GSE40887 dataset from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) was used for bioinformatics analysis. Limma package in R was used to detect DEGs. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were carried by Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID). The construction of protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the DEGs was performed by Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) and Cytoscape. Hub genes were identified through cytoHubba in Cytoscape. Results: In all, 200 up-regulated genes and 69 down-regulated genes were identified. Up-regulated genes were mainly enriched in: protein self-association, cellular response to hydrogen peroxide, plasma membrane. As for down-regulated genes, enzyme binding and detection of chemical stimulus involved in sensory perception of smell, nucleolus were enriched. Only one KEGG pathway was enriched: olfactory transduction. In addition, top 10 hub genes were found including: PRPF19, CCAR1, CWC15, PRPF38A, PRCC, KRR1, RPS3, PDCD11, MKI67, and NUF2. Conclusion: Several DEGs (SNORD46, RPS3, OR5E1P, OR56A5 and OR51B6, and PDCD11), one pathway (olfactory transduction) and one biological process (cellular response to hydrogen peroxide) were found might associate to childhood allergic asthma. Our results may provide inspiration for other researchers on DEGs and pathways in CD4+T cells of childhood allergic asthma.