Identification of a Gene Expression Signature to Predict the Risk of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in Psoriasis Patients.

BACKGROUND : Psoriasis is an immune-mediated, hereditary condition that presents itself in the skin or joints, or even both. Increasing evidence indicates that psoriasis is connected to an elevated risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), owing to their shared inflammatory pathogenesis. Nevertheless, the interplay between psoriasis and AAA lacks sufficient documentation. METHODS:  Through WGCNA and DEGs, psoriasis and AAA phenotype-related genes were identified. Identifying risk genes involved in both psoriasis and AAA involved generating candidate genes by finding the common intersection of hub genes, followed by using LASSO regression. Following this, a nomogram was created to forecast the development of psoriasis alongside AAA, and was then assessed through a ROC curve, DCA, calibration curve, and PR curve. Five algorithms, namely CIBERSORT, ssGSEA, ESTIMATE, MCPcounter, and QuanTIseq, were utilized to assess immune infiltration differences between high and low-risk groups. Simultaneously, we verified the differential gene expression in different tissues. RESULTS: A total of 1073 psoriasis hub genes and 128 AAA hub genes were generated. A Venn diagram revealed 20 candidate genes that were common to both hub genes of psoriasis and AAA. Of these, six genes (CCR7, CD3D, GBP5, HCLS1, IL7R, and ITGAL) were identified as risk genes. The gene signature generated by these genes demonstrated high accuracy in predicting psoriasis and AAA. Using five algorithms for immune infiltration analysis, an abundance of inflammatory cells was observed in high-risk subgroups. The above six genes were found to be highly expressed in both psoriasis tissue and abdominal aortic aneurysm tissue. CONCLUSIONS : The study resulted in the identification of a novel gene signature, including six high-risk genes, that has enhanced our knowledge of the common causes and control mechanisms of psoriasis and AAA. These findings are anticipated to pave the way for promising therapeutic targets in mitigating the comorbidities of cardiovascular disease.