Photo Credit: Veronika Oliinyk

Researchers have identified immune response-related hub genes that could act as diagnostic markers and potentially therapeutic targets for severe asthma.

Researchers have identified four immune response-related hub genes that could act as diagnostic markers and lead to therapeutic targets for severe asthma, according to a study published in the Journal of Asthma.

“There is mounting evidence to suggest that asthma is closely linked to immune dysfunction,” researchers wrote. “We performed a bioinformatic analysis to screen hub genes related to immune responses in [severe asthma].”

The study used two datasets from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database to obtain gene expression profiles for patients with severe asthma and matched controls. One included 246 patients and 87 healthy controls; the other included 17 patients and 18 healthy controls. The analysis also factored in 1,791 immune genes from a separate database.

Identification of Hub Genes

“After screening for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between [patients with severe asthma] and controls, and identifying gene modules highly associated with severe asthma, immune-related DEGs were obtained,” researchers wrote.

Among 40 immune-related DEGs identified, RNASE3, CAMP, LTF, and CD79A emerged as hub genes, according to the study results.

“The hub genes were closely associated with immune cells,” researchers wrote, “and single-sample gene set enrichment analysis showed that lysosome was associated with high expressions of the hub genes, while primary immunodeficiency was related to low expressions of the hub genes.”

Using the larger of the two NCBI datasets, researchers built a diagnostic model based on expression of RNASE3, CAMP, LTF, and CD79A. In a validation analysis using the other NCBI dataset, the model distinguished patients with severe asthma from healthy controls with high sensitivity.

“We constructed an immune gene-based risk prediction model for severe asthma using gene expression profiles of blood samples from [patients with severe asthma] in the NCBI database,” the study team wrote. “Through validation, this immune gene-based model was effective in differentiating between severe asthma patients and healthy individuals, which can offer novel views for the diagnosis and therapy of severe asthma.”