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Significance of neutrophil extracellular traps-related gene in the diagnosis and classification of atherosclerosis

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Abstract

Atherosclerosis (AS) is a pathological process associated with various cardiovascular diseases. Upon different stimuli, neutrophils release reticular complexes known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Numerous researches have indicated a strong correlation between NETs and AS. However, its role in cardiovascular disease requires further investigation. By utilizing a machine learning algorithm, we examined the genes associated with NETs that were expressed differently in individuals with AS compared to normal controls. As a result, we identified four distinct genes. A nomogram model was built to forecast the incidence of AS. Additionally, we conducted analysis on immune infiltration, functional enrichment and consensus clustering in AS samples. The findings indicated that individuals with AS could be categorized into two groups, exhibiting notable variations in immune infiltration traits among the groups. Furthermore, to measure the NETs model, the principal component analysis algorithm was developed and cluster B outperformed cluster A in terms of NETs. Additionally, there were variations in the expression of multiple chemokines between the two subtypes. By studying AS NETs, we acquired fresh knowledge about the molecular patterns and immune mechanisms implicated, which could open up new possibilities for AS immunotherapy.

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Data availability

Both the GEO database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) and the published article contain the data that substantiate the findings of this research. All analysis methods and software packages were indicated in the section titled “Materials and methods”.

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Funding

As part of the project, we received funds from the Hebei Province Education Department (Project No. QN2016145), as well as the University-level Science Funds in CDMC (202118 and 2023108), and the Chengde Medical University’s Fundamental Research Funds (KY202220). Thanks for these help, we were also honoured to be rated as a national college student scientific research project (Project No. 2023004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Basic Medical College of Chengde Medical University, Chengde, 067000, China

    Liantai Song, Boyu Zhang, Reng Li, Yibing Duan, Yifan Chi, Yangyi Xu & Xucong Hua

  2. Department of Biochemistry, Chengde Medical University, Chengde, 067000, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Qian Xu

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  1. Liantai Song
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  2. Boyu Zhang
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  7. Xucong Hua
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  8. Qian Xu
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Contributions

The study’s planning and manuscript writing were done by LS and BZ. The data was collected and examined by RL, YD and YC.The final paper was examined and approved by YX and XH. QX oversaw all aspects of the project, including data interpretation and article review. After evaluating the findings, all authors gave their approval to the final version of the paper.

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Correspondence to Qian Xu.

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Song, L., Zhang, B., Li, R. et al. Significance of neutrophil extracellular traps-related gene in the diagnosis and classification of atherosclerosis. Apoptosis 29, 605–619 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10495-023-01923-4

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