Identification of Differential Expression Genes of Blood Leukocytes for Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder with brain dysfunction. This study aimed to use bioinformatic analysis to identify candidate blood biomarkers for SCZ. Our study identified 1205 statistically significant DEGs, of which 623 genes were upregulated and 582 genes were downregulated. Functional enrichment analysis showed that DEGs were mainly enriched in cell chemotaxis, cell surface, and serine peptidase activity, as well as involved in Natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity. WGCNA identified 16 gene co-expression modules, and 5 modules were significantly correlated with SCZ (P < 0.05). There were 106 upregulated genes and 90 downregulated genes in the 5 modules. The top ten genes sorted by the Degree algorithm were RPS28, BRD4, FUS, PABPC1, PCBP1, PCBP2, RPL27A, RPS21, RAG1, and RPL27. RAG1 and the other 9 genes belonged to the turquoise and pink module respectively. Pathway enrichment analysis indicated that these 10 genes were mainly involved in processes such as Ribosome, cytoplasmic translation, RNA binding, and protein binding. Overall design: To identify candidate blood biomarkers for SCZ by bioinformatic analysis, we collected peripheral blood leukocyte samples of 9 SCZ patients and 20 healthy controls for RNA sequencing analysis.