Identification and Regulation of Common Key Genes in COPD and AD
1Department of Respiratory and Critical Medicine, Xingyi People's Hospital, Xingyi Hospital Affiliated to Guizhou Medical University, Xingyi, Guizhou 562400, China.
Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening
|June 2, 2026
Summary
This study identified five key genes common to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), offering potential biomarkers for their shared pathology. Further research is needed to validate these findings in clinical settings.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Bioinformatics
- Computational Biology
Background:
- Alzheimer's disease (AD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) frequently co-occur.
- The underlying shared pathology between AD and COPD remains largely unknown.
- This study aimed to identify key genes involved in both diseases using bioinformatics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
- To determine key genes (hub genes) associated with both AD and COPD using protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis.
- To explore the regulatory mechanisms, including transcription factors (TFs) and microRNAs (miRNAs), involved in the shared pathogenesis of AD and COPD.
Main Methods:
- Acquired transcriptome data for AD and COPD from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database.
- Screened for common DEGs using differential expression analysis.
- Identified hub genes via topological analysis of PPI networks, followed by Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), and prediction of regulatory TFs and miRNAs.
Main Results:
- Identified 30 common DEGs, with enrichment analysis indicating involvement in neurodegeneration pathways.
- Five key genes (PDP1, SERPINI1, PPP3CA, ATP2B1, VSNL1) demonstrated significant diagnostic value for the comorbidity (Area Under Curve > 0.6).
- Constructed a regulatory network revealing TF (e.g., ZNF76, KLF8) and miRNA (e.g., hsa-miR-206) involvement in regulating these shared genes.
Conclusions:
- This bioinformatics study preliminarily elucidates the cross-regulatory relationship between COPD and AD.
- Identified five key genes (PDP1, SERPINI1, PPP3CA, ATP2B1, VSNL1) as potential biomarkers for the AD-COPD comorbidity.
- These findings provide a theoretical foundation for investigating the shared mechanisms of AD and COPD, requiring further experimental validation.
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