Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective To explore the molecular markers of the occurrence and development of alcohol dependence by bioinformatics analysis on gene data set of patients with alcohol dependence. Methods The GSE62699 expression data set was downloaded from GEODatasets, including 18 samples of nucleus accumbens tissue from alcohol dependent patients and 18 samples of nucleus accumbens tissue from healthy population. Screening differentially expressed genes of GSE62699 using r language. Functional annotation of differentially expressed genes, including GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, was performed. The PPI network was constructed and analyzed using the STRING database, and the core genes were screened using the CytoHubba plug-in in Cytoscape. The obtained core genes were subjected to GSE29555 validation and ROC curve evaluation. Results A total of 236 differentially expressed genes between alcohol-dependent patients and healthy subjects were analyzed, including 131 up-regulated genes and 105 down-regulated genes. A total of 11 core genes were obtained using the CytoHubba plug-in in Cytoscape. Four molecular markers were obtained through GSE29555 validation and ROC curve evaluation. Conclusion Glutamate decarboxylase 2(GAD2), matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor 1(TIMP1), cholecystokinin (CCK), synaptosomal related protein (SNAP25) and endothelin -1(EDN1) may play important roles in the occurrence and development of alcohol dependence.

alcohol dependence; GEO database; Bioinformatics; Differentially expressed gene