Identification of six genes associated with COVID-19-related Circadian rhythm dysfunction by integrated bioinformatic analysis

Abstract

Abstract Background Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) might cause long-term burden of insomnia, while the common pathogenic mechanisms are not elucidated.Methods The gene expression profiles of COVID-19 patients and healthy controls were retrieved from the GEO database, while gene set related with circadian rhythm were obtained from Genecards database. The weight gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) algorithms were conducted to identify the most correlated gene module with COVID-19. Functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction network (PPI) were performed on shared genes between key module and circadian rhythm gene set. Hub genes were identified and gene regulatory networks, immune cell Infiltration evaluation and Drug–Gene interaction were constructed.Results 76 shared genes were screened and mainly enriched in cell cycle, cell division and cell proliferation, and 6 hub genes were found out including CCNA2, CCNB1, CDK1, CHEK1, MKI67 and TOP2A, with positive correlation to plasma cells. In the TF-gene regulatory network, NFYA, NFIC, MEF2A and FOXC1 showed high connectivity with hub genes.Conclusions This study established the co-expression network and identified six hub genes, which might provide new insights into pathogenic mechanisms and novel clinical management strategies.