Varicella-zoster virus (VZV)-human interacting proteins enable the clustering of giant cell arteritis (GCA) samples: supports the association of VZV with a subset of GCA cases

ABSTRACT Objective To investigate the association between Varicella-Zoster Virus (VZV) and Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA). Methods One publicly available plasma proteomics dataset and three transcriptomics datasets were used. From the GCA samples, the corresponding values of VZV-human interacting proteins were extracted, and spectral clustering was performed on the GCA samples to calculate the silhouette coefficient. Subsequently, from the GCA samples, proteins or genes of the same quantity were randomly sampled 10,000 times; the identical spectral clustering method was applied to these randomly sampled sets, and the silhouette coefficient was calculated for each. Differences in spectral clustering performance and silhouette coefficients were compared between the VZV-human interacting proteins and the 10,000 randomly sampled protein/gene sets in the GCA samples. The same entire analytical process was repeated for the control group. Results In the GCA samples, the VZV-human interacting proteins exhibited a distinct clustering effect. Their silhouette coefficient was greater than that of most randomly sampled protein or gene sets, and this difference was statistically significant. No similar phenomenon was observed in the control group. Conclusion Varicella-Zoster Virus is associated with a subset of Giant Cell Arteritis cases.