Screening of the Key Genes and Signaling Pathways for Schizophrenia Using Bioinformatics and Next Generation Sequencing Data Analysis

Schizophrenia is thought to be the most prevalent chronic psychiatric disorder. Numerous proteins have been identified that are associated with the occurrence and development of schizophrenia. This study aimed to identify potential core genes and pathways involved in schizophrenia, through exhaustive bioinformatic and next generation sequencing (NGS) data analyses using GSE20966 NGS data of neural progenitor cells and neurons obtained from healthy controls and patients with schizophrenia. The NGS data were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. NGS data was processed by the DESeq2 package in R software and the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and REACTOME pathway enrichment analysis were carried out to identify potential biological functions and pathways of the DEGs. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, module, miRNA-hub gene regulatory network and TF-hub gene regulatory network analysis were performed to identify the hub genes, miRNA and TFs. Potential hub genes were analyzed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves in the R package (pROC). In this investigation, an overall 955 DEGs were identified: 478 genes were remarkably up regulated and 477 genes were distinctly down regulated. These genes were enriched for GO terms and pathways mainly involved in the multicellular organismal process, GPCR ligand binding, regulation of cellular process and amine ligand-binding receptors. MYC, FN1, CDKN2A, EEF1G, CAV1, ONECUT1, SYK, MAPK13, TFAP2A and BTK were considered the potential hub genes. miRNA-hub gene regulatory network and TF-hub gene regulatory network were constructed successfully. On the whole, the findings of this investigation enhance our understanding of the potential molecular mechanisms of schizophrenia and provide potential targets for further investigation.