Discovering common pathogenetic processes between SARS-CoV-2 infection and polycystic ovary syndrome based on an integrated bioinformatics approach and experiment validation

The prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) among polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is significantly higher than in the general population. However, the mechanisms underlying this remain obscure. This study aimed to explore the mechanisms by identifying genetic signature of SARS-CoV-2 infection in PCOS. In the present study, a total of 27 common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were selected for subsequent analyses. Functional analyses showed that immunity and hormone related pathways collectively participated in the development and progression of PCOS and SARS Cov-2 infection. Under these, 7 significant hub genes were identified, including S100A9, MMP9, TLR2, THBD, ITGB2, ICAM1, CD86 by using the algorithm in Cytoscape. Furthermore, hub genes expression was confirmed in validation set, PCOS clinical samples and mouse model. Immune microenvironment analysis with CIBERSORTx database demonstrated that the hub genes were significantly correlated with T cells, dendritic cells, mast cells, B cells, NK cells, eosinophils and positively correlated with immune scores. Among the hub genes, S100A9, MMP9, THBD, ITGB2, CD86 and ICAM1 exhibited preferable values as diagnostic makers for COVID-19 and PCOS. In addition, we established the interaction networks of ovary-specific genes, transcription factors, miRNAs, drugs, and chemical compounds with hub genes with NetworkAnalyst. This work uncovered the common pathogenesis and genetic signature of PCOS and SARS-CoV-2 infection, which might provide a theoretical basis and innovative ideas for further mechanistic research and drug discovery of the comorbidity of two diseases.