Screening and identification of the core genes and drug targets in COVID-19 and coronary artery disease by integrated bioinformatics

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is attributed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Studies found that SARS-CoV-2 infection could worsen the coronary artery disease (CAD), and the risk for CAD patients to develop severe COVID-19 would be amplified. However, the potential molecular mechanism between COVID-19 and CAD is not clear yet. By studying transcriptomic data from COVID-19 patients and CAD patients, 106 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) shared in COVID-19 and CAD, which played roles in cardiomyopathy, citric acid cycle (TCA cycle), apoptosis signaling pathways, etc. Proteinprotein interaction analyses found that the hub genes, EEF1B2, COX7C, FAU, SNRPD2, TOMM7, HINT1, ATP5ME, ATP5PO, LSM7, and FBL played crucial roles in these two diseases. Transcription factors MYC and CTCF regulated the expression of hub genes. Analyses of Gene regulatory networks and drug-receptor interactions discovered that Ajmaline might be a promising drug. Molecular docking showed that the Ajmaline had strong binding activity to proteins COX7C and HINT1. In this study, the main enriched signaling pathways of these two diseases were studied and COX7C and HINT1 were revealed as potential molecular markers and targets of COVID-19 and CAD, and Ajmaline as a potential drug candidate provided an important theoretical basis for the development of effective therapies for COVID-19 and CAD.