Identification of Dopachrome Tautomerase (DCT) and Kinesin Family Member 1A (KIF1A) as Related Biomarkers and Immune Infiltration Characteristics of Vitiligo Based on Lasso-SVM Algorithms

Yilu Zhao,1,2,* Kang Ge,3,* Ruzhi Zhang4 1Department of Dermatology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical University, Bengbu Medical University, Bengbu, Anhui, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Dermatology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Dermatology, the Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, the First Hospital of Jiaxing, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Dermatology and STD, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ruzhi Zhang, Department of Dermatology and STD, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui, 241001, People’s Republic of China, Tel +8618761161826, Email zhangruzhi628@163.comObjective: To identify potential diagnostic markers for vitiligo and determine the significance of immune cell infiltration in pathology.Methods: Three publicly available gene expression profiles (GSE53146, GSE75819 and GSE65127 datasets) from human vitiligo and control samples were downloaded from the GEO database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened between 20 vitiligo and 20 control samples. Logical regression of the selection operator (LASSO) model and support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) analysis were performed to identify candidate biomarkers. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) value was obtained and was used to evaluate the discriminatory ability. The expression level and diagnostic value of the biomarkers in vitiligo were further validated in the GSE65127 dataset (10 vitiligo patients and 10 healthy controls). Finally, the immune cell infiltration of vitiligo was evaluated by CIBERSORT, and the correlation between biomarkers and infiltrating immune cells was analyzed. The compositional patter