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Is there a relationship between psoriasis and hepatitis C? A meta-analysis and bioinformatics investigation
Yong Liu1,2, Sheng Nan Cui3, Meng Yao Duan1
1School of Life Science, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
Insights
Psoriasis patients show a higher prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection. Common genes identified suggest inflammatory pathways are key to both conditions.
Area of Science:
- Dermatology and Hepatology
- Immunology and Bioinformatics
Background:
- The association between psoriasis and hepatitis C has been a subject of debate.
- Understanding this link is crucial for patient management and treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically investigate the relationship between psoriasis and hepatitis C.
- To identify common genetic factors and biological pathways involved in both diseases.
Main Methods:
- Conducted a systematic review of case-control, cross-sectional, and cohort studies.
- Performed bioinformatics analysis to identify overlapping genes between psoriasis and hepatitis C.
- Constructed protein-protein interaction networks and performed pathway enrichment analysis.
Main Results:
- Eleven studies involving 25,047 psoriasis patients and 4,091,631 controls were analyzed.
- Psoriasis was significantly associated with an increased prevalence of hepatitis C (OR 1.72).
- 389 common genes, including IL6, TNF, and STAT3, were identified, primarily involved in inflammatory and immune response pathways.
Conclusions:
- Psoriasis patients have a higher prevalence of hepatitis C.
- Preliminary clarification of the underlying biological mechanisms linking psoriasis and hepatitis C has been achieved.
Background:
The relationship between psoriasis and hepatitis C was previously controversial, so our purpose is to investigate this connection.
Methods:
We conducted a systematic review of the case-control, cross-sectional and cohort studies examining the association between psoriasis and hepatitis C in PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane library databases and investigated the overlapping genes between psoriasis targets and hepatitis C targets using bioinformatics analysis. Based on overlapping genes and hub nodes, we also constructed the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and module respectively, followed by the pathway enrichment analysis.
Results:
We included 11 publications that reported a total of 11 studies (8 cross-sectional and 3 case-control). The case-control and cross-sectional studies included 25,047 psoriasis patients and 4,091,631 controls in total. Psoriasis was associated with a significant increase of prevalent hepatitis C (OR 1.72; 95% confidence interval [CI] (1.17-2.52)). A total of 389 significant genes were common to both hepatitis C and psoriasis, which mainly involved IL6, TNF, IL10, ALB, STAT3 and CXCL8. The module and pathway enrichment analyses showed that the common genes had the potential to influence varieties of biological pathways, including the inflammatory response, cytokine activity, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, which play an important role in the pathogenesis of hepatitis C and psoriasis.
Conclusion:
Patients with psoriasis display increased prevalence of hepatitis C and the basic related mechanisms between hepatitis C and psoriasis had been preliminarily clarified.
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