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MDPI, Biomedicines, 5(9), p. 546, 2021

DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines9050546

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Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis Reveals Key Genes and Potential Drugs in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Journal article published in 2021 by Ke-Jia Kan ORCID, Feng Guo, Lei Zhu ORCID, Prama Pallavi, Martin Sigl, Michael Keese
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a prevalent aortic disease that causes high mortality due to asymptomatic gradual expansion and sudden rupture. The underlying molecular mechanisms and effective pharmaceutical therapy for preventing AAA progression have not been fully identified. In this study, we identified the key modules and hub genes involved in AAA growth from the GSE17901 dataset in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database through the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Key genes were further selected and validated in the mouse dataset (GSE12591) and human datasets (GSE7084, GSE47472, and GSE57691). Finally, we predicted drug candidates targeting key genes using the Drug–Gene Interaction database. Overall, we identified key modules enriched in the mitotic cell cycle, GTPase activity, and several metabolic processes. Seven key genes (CCR5, ADCY5, ADCY3, ACACB, LPIN1, ACSL1, UCP3) related to AAA progression were identified. A total of 35 drugs/compounds targeting the key genes were predicted, which may have the potential to prevent AAA progression.