Tang J, Xia J, Sheng H, Lin J. Identification and Development of Synovial B-Cell-Related Genes Diagnostic Signature for Rheumatoid Arthritis.
J Immunol Res 2023;
2023:9422990. [PMID:
38046263 PMCID:
PMC10693468 DOI:
10.1155/2023/9422990]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Revised: 10/27/2023] [Accepted: 11/01/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Background
The aim of the study was to investigate the landscape of B-cell-related gene expression profiling in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovium and explore the biological and clinical significance of these genes in RA.
Methods
Expression profiling of synovial biopsies from subjects with 152 RA patients, 22 osteoarthritis (OA) patients, and 28 healthy controls was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was performed to evaluate the abundance of infiltrated immune cells, and the results were validated using immunohistochemical staining. GSEA was employed to decipher differences in B-cell-related biological pathways. B-cell-related differential expression genes (BRDEGs) were screened, and BRDEGs-based model was developed by machine learning algorithms and evaluated by an external validation set and clinical RA cohort, then biological functions were further analyzed.
Results
High levels of immune cell infiltration and B-cell-related pathway activation were revealed in RA synovium. BRDEGs were screened, and three key molecular markers consisting of FAS, GPR183, and TFRC were identified. The diagnosis model was established, and these gene markers have good discriminative ability for RA. Molecular pathological evaluation confirmed RA patients with high-risk scores presented higher levels of B-cell activation and RA characteristics. In addition, a competitive endogenous RNA network was established to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the posttranscriptional network.
Conclusions
We described the B-cell-related molecular landscape of RA synovium and constructed a molecular diagnostic model in RA. The three genes FAS, GPR183, and TFRC may be potential targets for clinical diagnosis and immunoregulatory therapy of RA.
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