Identification of  hub genes for adult patients with sepsis via construction of a  microRNA-mRNA-PPI network

Objective: To screen out potential prognostic hub genes for adult patients with sepsis via construction of a microRNA-mRNA-PPI network, and investigate the localization of these core genes in peripheral blood monocytes.Methods: The peripheral bloods of 33 subjects were performed microRNA and mRNA sequencing using high-throughput sequencing, differentially expressed genes and microRNAs were identified by bioinformatics. 10×single-cell transcriptome sequencing was conducted further.Results: Of which 23 adult septic patients and 10 healthy individuals, a relative levels of transcription of 20391 genes, and 1633 microRNAs were detected by RNA sequencing. A total of 1114 differentially expressed genes and 76 differentially expressed microRNAs were obtained using DESeq2, 454 differential expression genes (DEGs) were distinguished ultimately. The microRNA-mRNA-PPI network was constructed based on DEGs and the top 20 differentially expressed microRNAs, which included 10 up-regulated and 10 down-regulated microRNAs. Furthermore, hub genes TLR5, FCGR1A, ELANE, GNLY, IL2RB and TGFBR3 which may be association with the prognosis of sepsis and their negative correlation microRNAs were recognized. Genes TLR5, FCGR1A and ELANE were mainly expressed in macrophages, genes GNLY, IL2RB and TGFBR3 were expressed specifically in T cells and nature kill cells.Conclusions: The parallel analysis of mRNA and microRNA in patients with sepsis using RNA-seq was feasible. Potential hub genes and microRNAs which are possibly related to sepsis prognosis were identified, it provides new prospects for sepsis. However, further experiments need to be required.