Inferring immune-associated signatures based on a co-expression network in Guillain-Barré syndrome

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a type of acute autoimmune disease, which occurs in peripheral nerves and their roots. There is extensive evidence that suggests many immune-associated genes have essential roles in GBS. However, the associations between immune genes and GBS have not been sufficiently examined as most previous studies have only focused on individual genes rather than their entire interaction networks.

In this study, multiple levels of data including immune-associated genes, GBS-associated genes, protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and gene expression profiles were integrated, and an immune or GBS-directed neighbour co-expressed network (IOGDNC network) and a GBS-directed neighbour co-expressed network (GDNC network) were constructed.

Our analysis shows the immune-associated genes are strongly related to GBS-associated genes whether at the interaction level or gene expression level. Five immune-associated modules were also identified which could distinguish between GBS and normal samples. In addition, functional analysis indicated that immune-associated genes are essential in GBS.

Overall, these results highlight a strong relationship between immune-associated genes and GBS existed and provide a potential role for immune-associated genes as novel diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers for GBS.