Protein-protein interaction network analysis and identifying regulation microRNAs in asthmatic children

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease, the incidence of which has increased recently. In order to identify the potential biomarkers for allergic asthma therapy, microarray data were analysed to find meaningful information.

Microarray data GSE18965 were downloaded from Gene Expression Ominibus (GEO), including seven asthmatic epithelium samples from children with allergic asthma and nine healthy controls. Limma package was used to detect differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the criteria were |log fold change|>0.5 and p value<0.05. We used Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) tool to perform GO function and KEGG pathway analysis. STRING database was used to construct protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. MicroRNA (miRNA) regulation network was constructed according to miRecords database.

We identified 274 DEGs in asthma epithelium samples comparing with healthy controls. There were 123 up-regulated DEGs and 151 down-regulated DEGs. PPI network analysis showed that TSPO, G6PD and TXN had higher degree. miRNA regulation network demonstrated that miR-16 and miR-15a had higher degree. The target genes of miRNAs were significantly enriched in the apoptosis function.

TSPO, G6PD and TXN, miR-16, miR-15a and apoptosis may be used as the targets for children's allergic asthma therapy.