Bioinformatics analysis of ulcerative colitis and its malignant complications and screening of potential therapeutic drugs / 上海交通大学学报（医学版）

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the pathogenic genes and potential drug therapeutic targets of ulcerative colitis and its malignant complications by a variety of bioinformatics analysis. Methods: Four expression profiling datasets (GSE13367, GSE9452 and GSE36807 as UC group, and GSE37283 as UCN group) downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were jointly analyzed to identify the differential genes. Key genes related to ulcerative colitis and its malignant complications were obtained by subsequent immunoassay and gene correlation analysis, and a number of small molecule drugs with potential therapeutic effects were screened by LINCS L1000 database. Results: Eighty-six and 253 significant differentially expressed genes were identified respectively in the differential gene analysis of UC group and UCN group. The scoring analysis of the node genes in protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of UC group showed that the core gene of the network was CXCL8. KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) enrichment analysis indicated that CXCL8 mainly participated in the recruitment of neutrophils in IL-17 signaling pathway, and three small molecule drugs (butein, levocetirizine, pseudoephedrine) for CXCL8 were found based on the screening results of LINCS L1000 database. Conclusion: The core differentially expressed gene CXCL8 may be a new drug target for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and its malignant complications. The three screened small molecule drugs may have potential treatment effect on ulcerative colitis and its malignant complications.