Identification the shared pathogenesis between chronic hepatitis B and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Evidence from transcriptome data

Background

The coexistence of Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming more prevalent, which not only exacerbates the original hepatitis symptoms, but also boosts the likelihood of cirrhosis and hepatocellular cancer (HCC). Nevertheless, the common mechanism of its occurrence is still obscure, the purpose of this study is to discover the shared pathogenesis.

Methods

The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was used to get the gene expression data sets for CHB (GSE83148) and NAFLD (GSE89632). Following the identification of the common differentially expressed genes (DEGs), functional annotation was carried out. Moreover, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and key sub-network were constructed. Finally, the hub gene was discovered and their transcription factors (TFs) analysis were performed.

Results

In the subsequent analyses, 54 common DEGs were selected. Functional analysis highlights the crucial role of immunity in these two diseases. Furthermore, IL2RB, GZMH, NKG7, CD2, CD48, TCF19, CXCL9, CCNA2, GZMA, CD8A, TNFAIP8L2, CD3D, TYMS, PRF1 and CCL5 were identified as significant hub genes, as their TFs were SP1, TP53, and ESR1.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that an immune-related mechanism may be the core pathogenesis of CHB and NAFLD, the clue sheds light on further mechanism research.