Recent studies have hinted at a link between periodontitis (PD) and influenza A (IA). Therefore, this study aims to identify key genes common to both diseases by studying Porphyromonas gingivalis (P.gingivalis) and the H1N1 virus, the main pathogen of PD and IA, evaluating the promise of these genes as biomarkers, and providing future therapeutic strategies for both diseases. Our research employs a wide range of methods, including bioinformatics analysis, drug prediction and molecular docking. Ultimately, machine learning algorithms identified TNFAIP3 as a common key gene for PD and IA, and further identified five drugs: Vemurafenib, Metformin, Dexamethasone, Tretinoin and Imatinib with potential for combined treatment of PD and IA. Our study reveals the shared mechanism and immune profile of TNFAIP3 as a key gene in PD and IA, which lays a theoretical foundation for future targeted therapies based on the shared mechanism of the two diseases.
Xu et al. (2026) studied this question.