Integrated Gene Expression Profiling Analysis Reveals Potential Molecular Mechanisms and Candidate Biomarkers for Early Risk Stratification and Prediction of STEMI and Post-STEMI Heart Failure Patients

Abstract Objective To explore the molecular mechanism and search for the candidate biomarkers with predictive and prognostic potentiality that detectable in the whole blood of STEMI patients and post-STEMI HF patients. Methods In this study, we downloaded GSE60993, GSE61144, GSE66360, and GSE59867 datasets from the NCBI-GEO database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of the datasets were investigated using R. Gene ontology and pathway enrichment were performed via ClueGO, CluePedia, and DAVID database. Protein interaction network was constructed via STRING. Enriched hub genes were analyzed by Cytoscape software. LASSO logistic regression algorithm and ROC analysis were performed to build machine learning models for predicting STEMI. Hub genes for further validated in post-STEMI HF patients from GSE59867. Results We identified 90 up-regulated DEGs and 9 down-regulated DEGs convergence in the three datasets (|log 2 FC| ≥ 0.8 and adjusted p value < 0.05). They were mainly enriched in Gene Ontology terms relating to cytokine secretion, pattern recognition receptors signaling pathway, and immune cells activation. A cluster of 8 genes including ITGAM , CLEC4D , SLC2A3 , BST1 , MCEMP1 , PLAUR , GPR97 , and MMP25 was found to be significant. A machine learning model built by SLC2A3 , CLEC4D , GPR97 , PLAUR , and BST1 exerted great value for STEMI prediction. Besides, ITGAM and BST1 might be candidate prognostic biomarkers for post-STEMI HF. Conclusions We re-analyzed the integrated transcriptomic signature of STEMI patients showing predictive potentiality and revealed new insights and specific prospective biomarkers for STEMI risk stratification and HF development.