Identification and validation of the diagnostic biomarker MFAP5 for CAVD with type 2 diabetes by bioinformatics analysis

Introduction Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is increasingly prevalent among the aging population, and there is a notable lack of drug therapies. Consequently, identifying novel drug targets will be of utmost importance. Given that type 2 diabetes is an important risk factor for CAVD, we identified key genes associated with diabetes - related CAVD via various bioinformatics methods, which provide further potential molecular targets for CAVD with diabetes. Methods Three transcriptome datasets related to CAVD and two related to diabetes were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. To distinguish key genes, differential expression analysis with the “Limma” package and WGCNA was applied. Machine learning (ML) algorithms were employed to screen potential biomarkers. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and nomogram were then constructed. The CIBERSORT algorithm was utilized to investigate immune cell infiltration in CAVD. Lastly, the association between the hub genes and 22 types of infiltrating immune cells was evaluated. Results By intersecting the results of the “Limma” and WGCNA analyses, 727 and 190 CAVD - related genes identified from the GSE76717 and GSE153555 datasets were obtained. Then, through differential analysis and interaction, 619 genes shared by the two diabetes mellitus datasets were acquired. Next, we intersected the differential genes and module genes of CAVD with the differential genes of diabetes, and the obtained genes were used for subsequent analysis. ML algorithms and the PPI network yielded a total of 12 genes, 10 of which showed a higher diagnostic value. Immune cell infiltration analysis revealed that immune dysregulation was closely linked to CAVD progression. Experimentally, we have verified the gene expression differences of MFAP5, which has the potential to serve as a diagnostic biomarker for CAVD. Conclusion In this study, a multi-omics approach was used to identify 10 CAVD-related biomarkers (COL5A1, COL5A2, THBS2, MFAP5, BTG2, COL1A1, COL1A2, MXRA5, LUM, CD34) and to develop an exploratory risk model. Western blot (WB) and immunofluorescence experiments revealed that MFAP5 plays a crucial role in the progression of CAVD in the context of diabetes, offering new insights into the disease mechanism.