Biomarker screening in preeclampsia: an RNA-sequencing approach based on data from multiple studies

Biomarkers have become important in the prognosis and diagnosis of various diseases. High-throughput methods, such as RNA sequencing facilitate the detection of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), hence potential biomarker candidates. Individual studies suggest long lists of DEGs, hampering the identification of clinically relevant ones. Concerning preeclampsia - a major obstetric burden with high risk for adverse maternal and/or neonatal outcomes - limitations in diagnosis and prediction are still important issues. We, therefore, developed a workflow to facilitate the screening for biomarkers.

On the basis of the tool DESeq2, a comprehensive workflow for identifying DEGs was established, analyzing data from several publicly available RNA-sequencing studies. We applied it to four RNA-sequencing datasets (one blood, three placenta) analyzing patients with preeclampsia and normotensive controls. We compared our results with other published approaches and evaluated their performance.

We identified 110 genes that are dysregulated in preeclampsia, observed in at least three of the studies analyzed, six even in all four studies. These included FLT-1, TREM-1, and FN1, which either represent established biomarkers at protein level, or promising candidates based on recent studies. For comparison, using a published meta-analysis approach, 5240 DEGs were obtained.

This study presents a data analysis workflow for preeclampsia biomarker screening, capable of identifying promising biomarker candidates, while drastically reducing the numbers of candidates. Moreover, we were also able to confirm its performance for heart failure. This approach can be applied to additional diseases for biomarker identification, and the set of DEGs identified in preeclampsia represents a resource for further studies.