Identifying Potential Gene Defect Patterns Related to COVID-19 Based on Pharmacological and Bioinformatics Analysis for Lung Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Hongqiang Lou, Xusheng Li, Suhua Gao, Yanfang Zhang, Haohao Chen, Xia Zhai Medical Molecular Biology Laboratory, School of Medicine, Jinhua Polytechnic, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, 330700, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xia Zhai, Medical Molecular Biology Laboratory, School of Medicine, Jinhua Polytechnic, 1188 Wuzhou Street, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, 321000, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) greatly affects cancer patients, especially those with lung cancer. This study aimed to identify potential drug targets for lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients with COVID-19.Methods: LUAD samples were obtained from public databases. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to COVID-19 were screened. Protein–protein interactions among COVID-19-related genes, the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and TCM target genes were analyzed by CytoScape. The correlation between tumor microenvironment and COVID-19 target genes were assessed by Pearson correlation analysis. Unsupervised consensus clustering was conducted to categorize molecular subtypes.Results: We filtered 26 COVID-19 target genes related to TCM for LUAD. Interleukin (IL)-17 signaling pathway and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling pathway were significantly enriched in these 26 genes. A strong correlation was found between COVID-19 target genes and tumor microenvironment (TME), cell death. Importantly, interleukin-1beta (IL1B) was identified as a core gene in the protein–protein interactions (PPI) network. Based on the 26 target genes, two molecular subtypes showing distinct overall survival, TME and response to target therapy were developed.Conclusions: This study explored 26 COVID-19 target genes, which could serve as potential therapeutic drug targets for LUAD. IL1B was verified as a critical target for developing new molecular drugs. Furthermore, two novel molecular subtypes showed the potential to guide personalized therapies in clinical practice.Keywords: COVID-19, lung adenocarcinoma, traditional Chinese medicine, drug targets, tumor microenvironment, molecular subtypes

Keywords

• covid-19
• lung adenocarcinoma
• traditional chinese medicine
• drug targets
• tumor microenvironment
• molecular subtypes