Role of ferroptosis-related genes in coronary atherosclerosis and identification of key genes: integration of bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation

Abstract

Background Coronary atherosclerosis (CA) is the most common type of atherosclerosis. However, the inherent pathogenesis and mechanisms of CA are unclear, and the relationship with ferroptosis-related genes (FRGs) has not been reported. The purpose of this study was to use bioinformatics techniques to evaluate potential therapeutic targets for CA.Please provide the given name for author “Dingshun”.Please provide the given name for author “Dingshun”. Methods First, the GSE132651 dataset was acquired from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis, and Protein–Protein interaction network were successively conducted. Next, overlapping genes between hub genes and CA genes were found. FRGs were found when comparing the CA group with the normal group. The correlation between overlapping genes and FRGs was further analyzed. At last, we performed Elisa to validate the expression of these genes in human blood specimens. Mice aortic tissues were used for western blot to detect the expression of proteins. Results Based on the GSE132651 dataset, 102 differentially expressed genes were identified. Five overlapping genes between hub genes and CA genes were found (CCNA2, RRM2, PBK, PCNA, CDK1). TFRC and GPX4 were found to be FRGs. TFRC was positively correlated with CCNA2, PBK, PCNA, CDK1, RRM2, with CDK1 being the strongest correlation. GPX4 was negatively correlated with these genes, among which CCNA2 was the strongest correlation. The ELISA results showed that CCNA2, CDK1, and TFRC expression were markedly increased in serum of the CA samples compared with controls, while GPX4 expression was markedly decreased in the CA samples. The western blot results show that GPX4 expression was lower in the model group, TFRC, CDK1, and CCNA2 protein expression were high in the model group. Conclusions Ferroptosis-related genes GPX4 and TFRC were closely correlated with the identified overlapping genes CCNA2 and CDK1, which may serve as targeted therapies for the treatment of CA.

IL‑37 suppresses macrophage ferroptosis to attenuate diabetic atherosclerosis via the NRF2 pathway

“…Ferroptosis is a newly discovered mode of programmed cell death. In recent years, studies from autopsies and animal experiments have reported that ferroptosis is extensively involved in the development and progression of atherosclerosis (25)(26)(27). Evidence from clinical researches suggested that HMOX1, a key gene of ferroptosis, is strongly associated with the prognosis of patients with atherosclerosis (28).…”

Single cell analysis of hub gene characteristics of atherosclerosis based on machine learning and analysis of immune correlation of aging subtypes

“…Biological function analysis showed that ASDEGs was signi cantly enriched in MAPK signal pathway, HLTV-1 infection, osteoclast differentiation and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction signal pathway [23].…”