An association study of m6A methylation with major depressive disorder

Abstract Objective To study the relationship between N6-methyladenosine (m6A) genes and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Methods GEO database was used to obtain the chip data and clinical information of dataset GSE98793, and the differentially expressed m6A genes was found through the analysis of the differentially expressed genes between the MDD group and the healthy control group. Random Forest method was used for screening and modeling verification. After grouping by Unsupervised Clustering Algorithm, the expression of differences between groups was calculated for further verification. The Principal Component Analysis method was used to verify again. The relationship between the differentially expressed m6A gene and immune cells、IL gene family、 NOD-like protein receptor family was calculated. Finally, the differentially expressed m6A gene was being analyzed separately. Results The differentially expressed m6A genes were ELAVL1 and YTHDC2. Through Random Forest screening and modeling verification, they are closely related to MDD. Unsupervised Clustering Algorithm clustering further verifies the above results. Principal Component Analysis verified the reliability of the clustering results. ELAVL1 and YTHDC2 are closely related to immune cells、 IL gene family、 NOD-like protein receptor family. Results of single gene analysis: Compared with YTHDC2, ELAVL1 was more closely related to MDD. Conclusion Among all m6A genes, ELAVL1 is closely related to depression, and is an important gene regulating MDD.