Evidence mapPaperPMID 41933376Full record

ArticleJournal of cardiothoracic surgery2026

Identification of atherosclerosis biomarkers through metabolic signatures and immune microenvironment analysis.

Hao Zhang, Xue Lv, Lingchuan Guo, Hongli Yang, Meng Yan

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Article in Journal of cardiothoracic surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Hao ZhangDepartment of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China.
Xue LvState Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, National Clinical Research Center for Blood Diseases, Haihe Laboratory of Cell Ecosystem, Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, 300020, China.
Lingchuan GuoDepartment of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China.
Hongli YangDepartment of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China.
Meng YanDepartment of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China. yanmeng@suda.edu.cn.

Funding

Special Research Fund for Central Universities, Peking Union Medical College 3332023059the National Natural Science Foundation of China 82100268Wu Jieping Medical Foundation Special Fund for Clinical Research 320.6750.2024-24-10Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program of Jiangsu Association for Scienceand Technology granted by Jiangsu Anti-Cancer Association JSTJ-2025-376
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAtherosclerosis is a chronic immune-metabolic inflammatory disease characterized by dysregulated lipid metabolism. Despite its recognized metabolic basis, biomarkers that reflect coordinated metabolic and immune features remain limited. This study aimed to identify diagnostic biomarkers that capture immune-metabolic features of atherosclerosis.

methodsTranscriptomic data were obtained from the GEO database. GO and KEGG analyses were performed. WGCNA identified hub genes. ssGSEA was used to evaluate immune cell infiltration. Unsupervised clustering identified atherosclerosis subtypes. Feature genes were selected using machine learning algorithms. Their diagnostic performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.

resultsIntegrated transcriptomic and metabolic analyses identified 17 metabolism-related hub genes associated with atherosclerosis. Based on their expression profiles, patients in the training set GSE100927 were stratified into two subtypes. Cluster 2 showed higher immune cell infiltration than Cluster 1. DGKZ and UAP1 were prioritized as feature genes and demonstrated excellent diagnostic performance in GSE100927 (DGKZ: AUC = 0.983, 95% CI: 0.961–1.000; UAP1: AUC = 0.949, 95% CI: 0.906–0.993), with validation in GSE57691 (DGKZ: AUC = 0.900, 95% CI: 0.780–1.000; UAP1: AUC = 0.822, 95% CI: 0.598–1.000) and moderate stage discrimination in GSE28829. Immune correlation analysis showed that DGKZ broadly positively correlated with immune infiltration (max r = 0.83 for MDSCs), whereas UAP1 exhibited predominantly negative correlations (max r = − 0.65 for immature B cells). DGKZ and UAP1 were also strongly negatively correlated in the training set (r = − 0.769), supporting their association with distinct immune-metabolic states.

conclusionDGKZ and UAP1 are potential diagnostic biomarkers for atherosclerosis and reflect immune-metabolic heterogeneity across molecular subtypes.

Indexed as

AtherosclerosisBiomarkersGene Expression ProfilingHumansTranscriptomeBiomarkersAtherosclerosisCluster AnalysisDiacylglycerol Kinase ZetaMetabolismUDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase 1

Identifiers

PMID41933376
PMCPMC13173966

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.