Screening of common key immune genes and prediction of potential drugs in chronic hepatic injury

Abstract

Abstract Studies had revealed that Immune related genes play an important role in Chronic hepatic injury (CHI), which is the main cause of liver fibrosis. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between CHI including Alcoholic hepatitis (AH), Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), Hepatitis C (HC), and Hepatitis B (HB) and related Control samples were detected by differential analysis. Then, 77 latent genes of CHI were intersected with IRGs to obtain DEGs for generating a Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network to screen out 5 key genes consisting of secreted phosphor protein 1 (SPP1), Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand (CXCL10), Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 20 (CCL20), Annexin A2 (ANXA2), and lectin galactoside-binding soluble 3 (LGALS3). Besides, we found that CXCL10 was regulated by a natural compound named quercetin, and there were 187 herbs with it as the main component. TFs-mRNA network identified that Forkhead box C1 (FOXC1) could regulate 4 key genes including CCL20, SSP1, ANXA2, and LGALS3. Therefore, this could provide references for CHI treatments and further studies.