Co-expression module analysis reveals high expression homogeneity for both coding and non-coding genes in sepsis
Xiaojun Liu,
Chengying Hong,
Yichun Jiang,
Wei Li,
Youlian Chen,
Yonghui Ma,
Pengfei Zhao,
Tiyuan Li,
Huaisheng Chen,
Xueyan Liu,
Lixin Cheng
Affiliations
Xiaojun Liu
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Chengying Hong
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Yichun Jiang
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Wei Li
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Youlian Chen
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Yonghui Ma
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Pengfei Zhao
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Tiyuan Li
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Huaisheng Chen
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Xueyan Liu
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Lixin Cheng
Department of Critical Care, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Second Clinical Medicine College of Jinan University
Abstract Sepsis is a life-threatening condition characterized by a harmful host response to infection with organ dysfunction. Annually about 20 million people are dead owing to sepsis and its mortality rates is as high as 20%. However, no studies have been carried out to investigate sepsis from the system biology point of view, as previous research predominantly focused on individual genes without considering their interactions and associations. Here, we conducted a comprehensive exploration of genome-wide expression alterations in both mRNAs and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in sepsis, using six microarray datasets. Co-expression networks were conducted to identify mRNA and lncRNA modules, respectively. Comparing these sepsis modules with normal modules, we observed a homogeneous expression pattern within the mRNA/lncRNA members, with the majority of them displaying consistent expression direction. Moreover, we identified consistent modules across diverse datasets, consisting of 20 common mRNA members and two lncRNAs, namely CHRM3-AS2 and PRKCQ-AS1, which are potential regulators of sepsis. Our results reveal that the up-regulated common mRNAs are mainly involved in the processes of neutrophil mediated immunity, while the down-regulated mRNAs and lncRNAs are significantly overrepresented in T-cell mediated immunity functions. This study sheds light on the co-expression patterns of mRNAs and lncRNAs in sepsis, providing a novel perspective and insight into the sepsis transcriptome, which may facilitate the exploration of candidate therapeutic targets and molecular biomarkers for sepsis.
