Relationship Between Obesity and Hypertension From Bioinformatics Analysis

Abstract

Background To explore the relationship between obesity and hypertension using bioinformatics analyses. Methods Disease databases (GeneCards, OMIM, CTD, TTD, DisGeNET, and Drugbank) were used to obtain hypertension and obesity-related targets. The intersection targets of obesity and hypertension were constructed using Venn diagrams. STRING online platform was used to obtain protein–protein interaction networks of common targets, and Cytohubba plug-in was used to screen the core targets. Gene ontology (GO) analysis and the enrichment analysis of Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) were carried out using DAVID database. Results A total of 459 and 551 targets were obtained for obesity and hypertension, respectively. Among them, 135 were targets for both obesity and hypertension in which tumor necrosis factor (TNF), cell tumor antigen p53 (TP53), chemokine 2 (CCL2), Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), interleukin (IL) 1B, nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS3), IL-6, and serine/threonine protein kinase 1 (AKT1) were key targets for regulating obesity and hypertension. Enrichment analysis yielded 306 GO entries [P < 0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) <0.05], which were involved in positive regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, positive regulation of nitric oxide biosynthetic process, cilium basal body, hormone activity, and RNA polymerase II repeating transcription factor binding. The 86 enriched KEGG entries (P < 0.05, FDR <0.05) included adipocytokine signaling pathway, regulation of lipolysis in adipocytes, PI3K–Akt signaling pathway and forkhead transcription factor O (FoxO) signaling pathway. Conclusions TNF, TP53, CCL2, TLR4, IL-1B, NOS3, IL-6, AKT1, and the key pathways including adipocytokine signaling pathway, regulation of adipocyte lipolysis, PI3K–Akt and FoxO signaling pathway play a regulatory role in interactions between obesity and hypertension. These findings provide new insights into the complex interactions between obesity and hypertension.