Identification of the Dynamic Expression Patterns of Immune Genes in the Peripheral Blood of Acute Ischemic Stroke...

Stroke is the second primary cause of death in the world and a main cause of disability, with ischemic stroke accounting for 80% of stroke cases. Under normal physiological conditions, there is a relative balance between the proinflammatory response and the anti-inflammatory response in brain tissue. Once ischemic stroke occurs, the balance is disrupted, and subsequent immune dysfunction occurs. However, the dynamic gene expression patterns underlying the immune-related mechanisms of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) are still not fully understood. In this study, through protein‒protein interaction network construction, random forest algorithm and immune cell subtype distribution evaluation, the 7 hub immune genes, namely, C5AR1, CD79B, TLR4, FLT3LG, IGF2R, NCR3 and PAK2, were identified. The peripheral blood of 60 AIS patients and 20 healthy controls was collected and grouped according to onset time and blood collection time. qRT‒PCR was used to measure the expression levels of hub immune genes in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of the AIS groups and control group. The results indicated that the hub immune genes were associated the onset and development of AIS. According to Pearson correlation analysis, the hub immune genes may be correlated with the dynamic immune response after AIS to some extent. In summary, our study identified 7 hub immune genes and verified the correlations between the 7 hub immune genes and the dynamic immune response after AIS. Furthermore, these genes may be novel candidate biomarkers or therapeutic targets in AIS.