Identification and Analysis of a Four-Gene Set for Diagnosing SFTS Virus Infection Based on Machine Learning Methods and Its Association with Immune Cell Infiltration

Tao Huang; Xueqi Wang; Yuqian Mi; Tiezhu Liu; Yang Li; Ruixue Zhang; Zhen Qian; Yanhan Wen; Boyang Li; Lina Sun; Wei Wu; Jiandong Li; Shiwen Wang; Mifang Liang

doi:10.3390/v15102126

Identification and Analysis of a Four-Gene Set for Diagnosing SFTS Virus Infection Based on Machine Learning Methods and Its Association with Immune Cell Infiltration

Viruses. 2023 Oct 20;15(10):2126. doi: 10.3390/v15102126.

Authors

Tao Huang¹, Xueqi Wang², Yuqian Mi³, Tiezhu Liu¹, Yang Li⁴, Ruixue Zhang¹, Zhen Qian¹, Yanhan Wen¹, Boyang Li¹, Lina Sun¹, Wei Wu¹, Jiandong Li¹, Shiwen Wang¹, Mifang Liang¹

Affiliations

¹ National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases (NITFID), Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, Beijing 102206, China.
² Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing 100020, China.
³ Shanxi Academy of Advanced Research and Innovation, Taiyuan 030032, China.
⁴ Chongqing Research Institute of Big Data, Peking University, Chongqing 400039, China.

Abstract

Severe Fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a highly fatal viral infectious disease that poses a significant threat to public health. Currently, the phase and pathogenesis of SFTS are not well understood, and there are no specific vaccines or effective treatment available. Therefore, it is crucial to identify biomarkers for diagnosing acute SFTS, which has a high mortality rate. In this study, we conducted differentially expressed genes (DEGs) analysis and WGCNA module analysis on the GSE144358 dataset, comparing the acute phase of SFTSV-infected patients with healthy individuals. Through the LASSO-Cox and random forest algorithms, a total of 2128 genes were analyzed, leading to the identification of four genes: ADIPOR1, CENPO, E2F2, and H2AC17. The GSEA analysis of these four genes demonstrated a significant correlation with immune cell function and cell cycle, aligning with the functional enrichment findings of DEGs. Furthermore, we also utilized CIBERSORT to analyze the immune cell infiltration and its correlation with characteristic genes. The results indicate that the combination of ADIPOR1, CENPO, E2F2, and H2AC17 genes has the potential as characteristic genes for diagnosing and studying the acute phase of SFTS virus (SFTSV) infection.

Keywords: LASSO–Cox; SFTS; SFTS acute phase; immune cells infiltration; machine learning.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bunyaviridae Infections*
Cyclic N-Oxides
Ethylnitrosourea
Humans
Phlebovirus*
Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome*

Substances

1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-(1-oxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl)-1-nitrosourea
Cyclic N-Oxides
Ethylnitrosourea

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the screening and functional validation of prognostic biomarkers in SFTS, grant number (CCDC-2022A104-LTZ).