Kawasaki Disease Patient Stratification and Pathway Analysis Based on Host Transcriptomic and Proteomic Profiles

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Pediatrics
• Genomics

Background:

• The etiology of Kawasaki disease (KD), an acute childhood inflammatory disorder, is unknown.
• Host 'omic profiles provide insights into inflammatory and infectious responses.
• Analyzing multiple 'omic levels offers a comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether the host response in Kawasaki disease resembles bacterial or viral infections.
• To compare transcriptomic and proteomic profiles of KD patients with those of bacterial and viral infections.
• To explore potential heterogeneity in the inflammatory response within Kawasaki disease.

Main Methods:

• Differential abundance analysis
• Pathway analysis
• Unsupervised clustering
• Classification techniques
• Transcriptomic and proteomic data analysis

Main Results:

• Kawasaki disease patients activated both anti-viral and anti-bacterial response pathways.
• Majority of KD patients clustered with bacterial infection patients at transcriptomic and proteomic levels.
• Many KD samples showed low probabilities of bacterial or viral infection, suggesting a distinct trigger.
• Clustering revealed three distinct KD patient groups, indicating heterogeneity in the inflammatory response.

Conclusions:

• Kawasaki disease may be triggered by a process distinct from typical bacterial or viral infections.
• Host 'omic profiles reveal significant heterogeneity in Kawasaki disease inflammatory responses.
• Observed heterogeneity could stem from variations in host response to a common trigger or different triggers.