Screening and functional pathway analysis of genes associated with pediatric allergic asthma using a DNA microarray

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with pediatric allergic asthma, and to analyze the functional pathways of the selected target genes, in order to explore the pathogenesis of the disease. The GSE18965 gene expression profile was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and was preprocessed. This gene expression profile consisted of seven normal samples and nine samples from patients with pediatric allergic asthma. The DEGs between the normal and pediatric allergic asthma samples were screened using limma package in R, and the cut-off value was set at false discovery rate <0.05 and log fold change >1. Following hierarchical clustering of the DEGs based on the expression profiles, the up- and downregulated genes underwent a functional enrichment analysis by topological approach (P<0.05), using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery. A total of 127 DEGs were identified between the normal and pediatric allergic asthma samples. The up- and downregulated genes were significantly enriched in the actin filament-based process and the monosaccharide metabolic process, respectively. Seven downregulated DEGs (M6PR, TPP1, GLB1, NEU1, ACP2, LAMP1 and HGSNAT) were identified in the lysosomal pathway, with P=6.4x10-9. These results suggested that variation in lysosomal function, triggered by the seven downregulated genes, may lead to aberrant functioning of the T lymphocytes, resulting in asthma. Further research regarding the treatment of pediatric allergic asthma through targeting lysosomal function is required.