Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Molecular Relationship Between Common Respiratory Infections and Parkinson's...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Genomics
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Parkinson's disease (PD) is a growing global health concern.
• The link between respiratory infections (RIs) and idiopathic PD (iPD) is debated, lacking defined molecular mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate molecular interactions between RIs and PD.
• To identify shared biological pathways and key genes implicated in both conditions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized bioinformatics analysis on publicly available RNA-seq datasets (NCBI GEO).
• Included differential gene expression analysis, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), pathway enrichment, protein-protein network construction, and Random Forest (RF) machine learning models.

Main Results:

• Identified co-expressed and downregulated ribosomal subunits, mitochondrial complex proteins, proteasome subunits, and ubiquitin-encoding proteins in both RIs and PD.
• Observed dysregulation in pathways critical to PD pathology, including ribosome biogenesis, protein synthesis, autophagy, apoptosis, the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), and mitochondrial respiration.

Conclusions:

• Respiratory infections and Parkinson's disease exhibit similar transcriptional responses and molecular dysfunctions, mirroring aspects of aging.
• RIs may influence PD pathogenesis via age- or immune-dependent mechanisms, necessitating further longitudinal and experimental studies.