1. Genomic analysis of host gene responses to cerebral Plasmodium falciparum malaria
- Author
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Xiao-Xiao Zhao, Fang-Fang Liu, Hong-Feng Zhang, Ke Li, Yong-Ji Lai, and Han Wang
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Plasmodium falciparum ,Immunology ,Malaria, Cerebral ,Computational biology ,Biology ,Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins ,Transcriptome ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Immune system ,Gene expression ,medicine ,Humans ,Immunology and Allergy ,DEG ,Malaria, Falciparum ,Gene ,Malaria vaccine ,Immunity ,Original Articles ,Genomics ,RC581-607 ,coexpression networks ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,Adaptor Proteins, Vesicular Transport ,030104 developmental biology ,genomic analysis ,Cerebral Malaria ,Original Article ,cerebral malaria ,Immunologic diseases. Allergy ,Malaria ,030215 immunology - Abstract
Introduction A vaccine for malaria is urgently required but no vaccine has yet shown satisfactory protective efficacy especially for Plasmodium falciparum. P. falciparum infection can progress to cerebral malaria (CM), a neurological syndrome with exceedingly high mortality. Designing effective P. falciparum vaccines require more understanding of the protective immune response while the host immune response to CM and the mechanisms are still elusive. Here, we aim to identify host gene responses to CM and host gene networks associated with CM pathogenesis. Methods An innovative genomic analysis strategy, the weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) combined with differential gene expression analysis, was used in this study. Data for analysis contain 93 whole blood samples, derived from two previous public transcriptome datasets. Results This approach led to the identification of numerous differentially expressed human transcripts and dozens of coexpression gene modules. We further identified nine key genes, including MBP, SAMSN1, PSMF1, SLC39A8, EIF3B, SMPDL3A, FABP5, SPSB3, and SHARPIN, of which the last four genes were first identified to be related to CM in the present study. Conclusion The results provided a comprehensive characterization of host gene expression profiles in CM and offered some new insight into malaria vaccine design. These identified key genes could be potential targets or immune modulators for novel therapeutic interventions of CM., Graphical abstract The present study used an innovative genomic analysis strategy to explored gene coexpression networks associated with cerebral malaria (CM) pathogenesis and identified several key host genes. The findings will be of interest to host–parasite interaction study and would be of assistance to further investigate CM pathology.
- Published
- 2021
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