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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.
Sec. Computational Genomics
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1430275

Identification and validation of aging-related genes in neuropathic pain using bioinformatics

Provisionally accepted
Hui Gao Hui Gao Guoqi Dong Guoqi Dong Yong Yao Yong Yao Huayuan Yang Huayuan Yang *
  • School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Neuropathic pain (NP) is a debilitating and refractory chronic pain with a higher prevalence especially in elderly patients. Cell senescence considered a key pathogenic factor in NP. The objective of this research is to discover genes associated with aging in peripheral blood of individuals with NP using bioinformatics techniques. Methods: Two cohorts (GSE124272 and GSE150408) containing peripheral blood samples of NP were downloaded from the GEO database. By merging the two cohorts, differentially expressed aging-related genes (DE-ARGs) were obtained by intersection with aging-related genes. The potential biological mechanisms of DE-ARGs were further analyzed through GO and KEGG. Three machine learning methods, namely LASSO, SVM-RFE, and Random Forest, were utilized to identify diagnostic biomarkers. A Nomogram model was developed to assess their diagnostic accuracy. The validation of biomarker expression and diagnostic effectiveness was conducted in three distinct pain cohorts. The CIBERSORT algorithm was employed to evaluate the immune cell composition in the peripheral blood of patients with NP and investigate its association with the expression of diagnostic biomarkers. Results: This study identified a total of 24 DE-ARGs, mainly enriched in "Chemokine signaling pathway", "Inflammatory mediator regulation of TRP channels", "HIF-1 signaling pathway" and "FOXO signaling pathway". Three machine learning algorithms identified a total of 4 diagnostic biomarkers (CEBPA, CEACAM1, BTG3 and IL-1R1) with good diagnostic performance and the similar expression difference trend in different types of pain cohorts. The expression levels of CEACAM1 and IL-1R1 exhibit a positive correlation with the percentage of neutrophils. Conclusions: Using machine learning techniques, our research identified four diagnostic biomarkers related to aging in peripheral blood, providing innovative approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of NP.

    Keywords: neuropathic pain, machine learning, Aging, diagnostic biomarkers, bioinformatics

    Received: 09 May 2024; Accepted: 04 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gao, Dong, Yao and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Huayuan Yang, School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.