Identification of Adipocytokine Pathway-Related Genes in Epilepsy and Its Effect on the Peripheral Immune Landscape

Abstract

Epilepsy is a multifactorial neurological disorder with recurrent epileptic seizures. Current research stresses both inflammatory and autoimmune conditions as enablers in the pathophysiological process of epilepsy. In view of the growing concern about the role of adipocytokines in antiepileptic and modulating immune responses, we aimed to investigate the relevance of the adipocytokine signaling pathway in the pathological process of epilepsy and its impacts on peripheral immune characteristics. In this study, expression profiles of 142 peripheral blood samples were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Adipocytokine pathway-related genes were screened out by feature selection using machine-learning algorithms. A nomogram was then constructed and estimated for the efficacy of diagnosis. Cluster analysis was employed for the recognization of two distinct epilepsy subtypes, followed by an estimation of the immune cell infiltration levels using single-sample gene-set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA). The biological characteristics were analyzed by functional enrichment analysis. The aberrant regulation of adipocytokine signaling pathway was found in the peripheral blood of patients with epilepsy. Twenty-one differently expressed adipocytokine pathway-related genes were identified and five (RELA, PRKAB1, TNFRSF1A, CAMKK2, and CPT1B) were selected to construct a nomogram. Subsequent validations of its forecasting ability revealed that this model has satisfactory predictive value. The immune cell infiltration degrees, such as those of innate immune cells and lymphocytes, were found to significantly correlate to the levels of adipocytokine pathway-related genes. Additionally, 239 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified and their biological functions were mainly enriched in the regulation of the immune response. In conclusion, our results confirmed the predictive value of adipocytokine pathway-related genes for epilepsy and explored their effects on immune infiltration, thereby improving our understanding of the pathogenesis of epilepsy and providing assistance in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.