Highlighting the Role of Neurofilament Light and Medium Polypeptides in Peripheral Diabetic Neuropathy

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease caused by insulin uptake or deficiency. Side effects of diabetes are numerous, according to the severity of the disease. Diabetes could harm the peripheral nerves, with chronic pain leading to nerve damage known as diabetic neuropathy (DN). Signs and symptoms of DN are sharp pains, numbness, and tingling. Distal symmetric polyneuropathy is the most common nerve injury during DN. Accordingly, this study screens candidate genes related to sural nerve DN (SDN) to find the critical ones.

Gene expression data from diabetic patients with and without progressive sural nerve neuropathy (GSE24290) were included in the analysis. GEO2R was applied to the first step analysis to find the significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The queried significant DEGs, along with their first 100 neighbors, were included in a network using the Cytoscape software. The network was analyzed using the Cytoscape network analysis application, and the central nodes were identified.

A total of 26 significant DEGs that were extracted from the gene expression profiles, plus 100 first neighbors, were interacted to form the network. INS, ALB, AKT1, APP, SNAP25, NEFL, GFAP, IL6, NEFM, TNF, MAPT, GAP43, and MBP were identified as 13 hubs of the network. NEFL and NEFM were highlighted as the queried hub genes. Insulin, as the top hub node, was determined among all interacted genes (the queried and added genes).

INS, NEFL, and NEFM are key genes in DN, which are involved in metabolism regulation and intracellular transportation into axons and dendrites, respectively.