Identifying Common Genes and Pathways Associated with Periodontitis and Aging by Bioinformatics Analysis.

Background: This work used bioinformatic analysis to identify the relationship between periodontitis (PD) and aging, which could lead to new treatments for periodontal disease in the elderly.

Method: Four microarray datasets were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and analyzed in R language to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The common DEGs of PD and aging were evaluated as key genes in this investigation by a Venn diagram. These common DEGs were analyzed through additional experiments and analysis, such as pathway analysis and enrichment analysis, and a network of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) was constructed. Cytoscape was used to visualize hub genes and critical modules based on the PPI network. Interaction of TF-genes and miRNAs with hub genes is identified.

Result: 84 common DEGs were found between PD and aging. Cytohubba was performed on the PPI network obtained from STRING tool, and the top 10 genes (MMP2, PDGFRB, CTGF, CD34, CXCL12, VIM, IL2RG, ACTA2, COL4A2, and TAGLN) were selected as hub genes. VIM may be a potential biomarker in the analysis of linked hub gene regulatory networks, and hsa-mir-21 and hsa-mir-125b are predicted to be associated in PD and aging.

Conclusion: This study investigated the key genes and pathways interactions between PD and aging, which may help reveal the correlation between PD and aging. The current research results are obtained by prediction, and follow-up biological experiments are required for further verification.