Screening the hub genes and analyzing the mechanisms in discharged COVID-19 patients retesting positive through bioinformatics analysis.

Background: After encountering COVID-19 patients who test positive again after discharge, our study analyzed the pathogenesis to further assess the risk and possibility of virus reactivation.

Methods: A separate microarray was acquired from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and its samples were divided into two groups: a "convalescent-RTP" group consisting of convalescent and "retesting positive" (RTP) patients (group CR) and a "healthy-RTP" group consisting of healthy control and RTP patients (group HR). The enrichment analysis was performed with R software, obtaining the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG).