ABSTRACT
Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has posed a significant challenge for global health systems. Increasing evidence shows that asthma phenotypes and comorbidities are major risk factors for COVID-19 symptom severity. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the association between COVID-19 and asthma are poorly understood. Therefore, we conducted bioinformatics and systems biology analysis to identify common pathways and molecular biomarkers in patients with COVID-19 and asthma, as well as potential molecular mechanisms and candidate drugs for treating patients with both COVID-19 and asthma. Methods: Two sets of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from the GSE171110 and GSE143192 datasets were intersected to identify common hub genes, shared pathways, and candidate drugs. In addition, murine models were utilized to explore the expression levels and associations of the hub genes in asthma and lung inflammation/injury. Results: We discovered 157 common DEGs between the asthma and COVID-19 datasets. A protein-protein-interaction network was built using various combinatorial statistical approaches and bioinformatics tools, which revealed several hub genes and critical modules. Six of the hub genes were markedly elevated in murine asthmatic lungs and were positively associated with IL-5, IL-13 and MUC5AC, which are the key mediators of allergic asthma. Gene Ontology and pathway analysis revealed common associations between asthma and COVID-19 progression. Finally, we identified transcription factor-gene interactions, DEG-microRNA coregulatory networks, and potential drug and chemical-compound interactions using the hub genes. Conclusion: We identified the top 15 hub genes that can be used as novel biomarkers of COVID-19 and asthma and discovered several promising candidate drugs that might be helpful for treating patients with COVID-19 and asthma.