The importance of ErbB signaling pathway in identifying biomarkers influencing the development of coronary artery disease: an in-silico study

Coronary arteries are blood vessels that carry blood to the heart. With plaque forming on the walls of these arteries, the blood supply becomes problematic. The diagnosis of coronary artery disease is very important because of the risks to personchr('39')s health. The aim of this study is to determine genes with differential expression between CAD patients and normal individuals in the ErbB signaling pathway, as one of the important pathways in the development of this disease, and to investigate their importance in identifying biomarkers of coronary artery disease.

The raw files of RNA-sequencing of samples of coronary artery patients and normal individuals were obtained from datasets with numbers GSE99985 and GSE100206, respectively, and the steps of sample analysis were performed. Genes with different expression in R program were isolated with DESeq2 package. Then, functional analysis of genes including signaling pathways, biological processes and genes with different expression in the ErbB pathway and how they change were examined.

The results demonstrated upregulation of 1069 genes and downregulation of 851 genes among samples. In addition, functional analysis revealed that genes such as CAMK2D, SHC3, ERBB3, NRG4, RPS6KB2, MAPK1, BRAF, AREG and CRK had differentially expression among patients could affect ErbB signaling pathway as well.

 Molecular studies can help to achieve the reliable biomarkers of coronary artery disease which is important for biomedical research, drug development and clinical applications.