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BIOINFORMATICS ANALYSIS IDENTIFIES SOD2 AND TYMP AS MITOCHONDRIAL DAMAGE-RELATED BIOMARKERS ASSOCIATED WITH IMMUNE
1Anhui Province Engineering Research Center for Dental Materials and Application, School of Stomatology, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241002, China.
Background:
Oral ulcers are common painful lesions affecting the oral mucosa that significantly impact patients' quality of life. While the pathogenesis involves inflammatory responses, the role of mitochondrial damage in oral ulcer development remains poorly understood.
Methods:
We performed comprehensive bioinformatics analysis using the GSE37265 dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified using limma package with criteria of |log2FC| > 1 and adjusted P < 0.05. Mitochondrial damage-related genes were obtained from the Genecard database, and LASSO regression was applied for feature selection. Immune cell infiltration was analyzed using CIBERSORT algorithm.
Results:
We identified 337 DEGs between oral ulcer and control samples. Functional enrichment analysis revealed significant activation of inflammatory and immune-related pathways, including cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, TNF signaling pathway, and IL-17 signaling pathway. Through intersection analysis with 573 mitochondrial damage-related genes, we identified 4 overlapping genes. LASSO regression further selected SOD2 and TYMP as core mitochondrial damage biomarkers. Both genes were significantly upregulated in oral ulcer samples. Immune infiltration analysis demonstrated that SOD2 and TYMP expression strongly correlated with M1 macrophage infiltration and negatively correlated with regulatory T cells (Tregs) infiltration.
Conclusions:
Our study identifies SOD2 and TYMP as key mitochondrial damage-related biomarkers in oral ulcers, which may regulate the immune microenvironment through modulating macrophage polarization and T cell function. These findings provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms of oral ulcers and potential targets for precision medicine approaches.
