• Yiling Cao, Xuhua Mi, Zheng Wang, Dongmei Zhang, and Wanxin Tang.
• Department of Nephrology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No.37, Guoxue Alley, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
• J Natl Med Assoc. 2020 Dec 1; 112 (6): 567-577.

BackgroundLupus nephritis (LN) is a common complication of systemic lupus erythematosus that presents a high risk of end-stage renal disease. However, the molecular mechanisms of LN remain unclear. The lack of understanding hinders the development of specific targeted therapy for this progressive disease.ObjectivesIn the present study, we used bioinformatics analysis of gene expression profiles from the Gene Expression Omnibus to identify novel targets and potential biomarkers for LN.Material And MethodsA GSE32591 dataset, which included 31 LN glomerular biopsy tissues and 14 living donors' glomerular tissues, was downloaded for further analysis. Differentially expressed genes in LN were analyzed by the limma package. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were performed for the differentially expressed genes by using the Disease Ontology Semantic and Enrichment and the clusterProfiler software. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was then formed using STRING online tool.Results440 genes, including 310 upregulated genes and 130 downregulated genes, were found as differentially expressed genes. GO and KEGG analyses revealed that immune response is significantly enriched in such genes. The PPI network showed that ISG15, MX1, OAS1, OAS2, and OAS3 were the hub genes enriched in LN. Along with literature review, the OAS family genes were revealed to be closely associated with LN progression.Conclusionsour studies provided new insight into the molecular pathogenesis of LN. The OAS family may play an important role in LN and act as a novel molecular candidate for the further study of LN.Copyright © 2020 National Medical Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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