Identification of the Hub Genes in Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is considered to be the most common neurodegenerative disease and also one of the major fatal diseases affecting the elderly, thus bringing a huge burden to society. Therefore, identifying AD-related hub genes is extremely important for developing novel strategies against AD.

Here, we extracted the gene expression profile GSE63061 from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) GEO database. Once the unverified gene chip was removed, we standardized the microarray data after quality control. We utilized the Limma software package to screen the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We conducted Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses of DEGs. Subsequently, we constructed a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network using the STRING database.

We screened 2169 DEGs, comprising 1313 DEGs with upregulation and 856 DEGs with downregulation. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the response of immune, the degranulation of neutrophils, lysosome, and the differentiation of osteoclast were greatly enriched in DEGs with upregulation; peptide biosynthetic process, translation, ribosome, and oxidative phosphorylation were dramatically enriched in DEGs with downregulation. 379 nodes and 1149 PPI edges were demonstrated in the PPI network constructed by upregulated DEGs; 202 nodes and 1963 PPI edges were shown in the PPI network constructed by downregulated DEGs. Four hub genes, including GAPDH, RHOA, RPS29, and RPS27A, were identified to be the newly produced candidates involved in AD pathology.

GAPDH, RHOA, RPS29, and RPS27A are expected to be key candidates for AD progression. The results of this study can provide comprehensive insight into understanding AD's pathogenesis and potential new therapeutic targets.