Construction of competitive endogenous RNA regulatory network and immunological correlation analysis of periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis

ZHAO Xiaoxue; ZHANG Xinran; ZHANG Tingting

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2025.02.006

Abstract：Objective To construct a competitive endogenous RNA(ceRNA)regulatory network for periodontal dis-ease(PD)and rheumatoid arthritis(RA)and to analyze their immune correlation.Methods Datasets for PD and RA were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO)database of the National Center for Biotechnology Information.Key genes were identified by screening differentially expressed genes(DEGs),performing weighted gene co-expression network analysis(WGCNA),and intersecting immune datasets.Functional enrichment of key genes was analyzed using re-ceiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis,gene correlation analysis,and single-sample gene set enrichment analysis(ssGSEA),followed by validation with external datasets.A ceRNA regulatory network was constructed using key genes and predicted target genes from databases.Immune infiltration analysis website was used to explore the immune cor-relation between PD and RA.Results Four key genes(IL10RA,RAC2,BTK,and CD48)were identified,showing high diagnostic value for PD and RA and strong inter-gene correlations.These genes were involved in different pathways in PD and RA.Using the four key genes and two target miRNAs(hsa-miR-1271-5p and hsa-let-7e-5p),ceRNA regulatory networks for PD and RA were successfully constructed,and 9 DElncRNAs of PD and 16 DElncRNAs of RA were ob-tained,respectively.Differences in immune cell proportions were observed between PD and RA patients and healthy con-trols.PD patients exhibited a higher proportion of plasma cells and lower proportions of CD8+T lymphocytes,activated NK cells,M2 macrophages,resting dendritic cells,and resting mast cells compared with the controls.Compared with the con-trols,RA patients showed higher proportions of plasma cells,γδ T lymphocytes,and M1 macrophages in the synovial tis-sues.Negative correlations were found between resting dendritic cells and plasma cells in PD,between resting mast cells and activated mast cells,between M1 macrophages and monocytes,and between γδ T lymphocytes and monocytes in RA.A positive correlation was observed between M1 macrophages and γδ T lymphocytes in RA.Conclusions Four key genes are successfully identified,and ceRNA regulatory networks for PD and RA are constructed.PD and RA share partial im-mune response mechanisms.