Background
Classic Hodgkin lymphoma (CHL) is the most common HL in the modern society. Although the treatment of cHL has made great progress, its molecular mechanisms have yet to be deciphered.
Objectives
The purpose of this study is to find out the crucial potential genes and pathways associated with cHL.
Methods
We downloaded the cHL microarray dataset (GSE12453) from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between cHL samples and normal samples through the limma package in R. Then, gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs were carried out. Finally, we constructed the protein-protein interaction network to screen out the hub genes using Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database.
Results
We screened out 788 DEGs in the cHL dataset, such as BATF3, IER3, RAB13 and FCRL2. GO functional enrichment analysis indicated that the DEGs were related with regulation of lymphocyte activation, secretory granule lumen and chemokine activity. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the genes enriched in Prion disease, Complement and coagulation cascades and Parkinson disease Coronavirus disease-COVID-19 pathway. Protein-protein interaction network construction identified 10 hub genes (IL6, ITGAM, CD86, FN1, MMP9, CXCL10, CCL5, CD19, IFNG, SELL, UBB) in the network.
Conclusions
In the present investigation, we identified several pathways and hub genes related to the occurrence and development of cHL, which may provide an important basis for further research and novel therapeutic targets and prognostic indicators for cHL.