The potential role of intestinal dysbacteriosis-related genes in hypertension: a bridge for future targeted therapies

Abstract Background: Changes in the balance of intestinal flora can cause many diseases. This article offers a new direction to the future therapy of hypertension by screening potential drug targets for hypertension related to intestinal flora. Method: Differential expression of GSE74144 in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was analyzed by GEO2R, grouping based on whether they had hypertension or not. Intestinal flora-related genes retrieved from the GeneCards database were intersected with the differential genes. The protein-protein interaction network was then constructed and the central gene was identified by Cytoscape. Candidate pharmacological compounds for differentially expressed genes were filtrated by cMap. Results: We found high-expressed genes and 12 low-expressed genes were found in hypertension and intestinal microbiota related genes. These genes participate in biological processes including immune response regulation, bacterial defense response, glycolysis, viral response, etc. KEGG results show that these genes are related to inflammatory bowel disease, immune cell differentiation. Conclusions: Through bioinformatics analysis, we have revealed the key genes related to intestinal flora in hypertension, as well as 10 drugs that may be used to treat hypertension, which provides a new way to treat hypertension in the future.