Blood expression of NADK2 as a diagnostic biomarker for sciatica

Xiaobo Wang; Zhenxiao Ren; Bingyu Wang; Jiawei Shi; Jingmin Liu; Yang Wang; Xin Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.111196

Blood expression of NADK2 as a diagnostic biomarker for sciatica

iScience. 2024 Oct 18;27(11):111196. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111196. eCollection 2024 Nov 15.

Authors

Xiaobo Wang¹, Zhenxiao Ren², Bingyu Wang³, Jiawei Shi¹, Jingmin Liu¹, Yang Wang⁴, Xin Zheng⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Spine Surgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Orthopaedics and Traumatology/Department of Spine Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Department of Spine Surgery, The Affiliated TCM Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Radiology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
⁵ Department of Spine Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hanzhou, China.

Abstract

Sciatica is characterized by radiating pain along the sciatic nerve, with a lifetime prevalence of up to 43%. This study explored blood biomarkers for sciatica using transcriptomic microarray data (GSE124272 and GSE150408). Differential gene expression analysis identified NADK2 as a potential diagnostic biomarker. A diagnostic model based on NADK2 showed strong validation performance in 200 clinical cases. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) suggested a connection between NADK2 and the aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis pathway. In conclusion, NADK2 emerges as promising diagnostic and therapeutic targets for sciatica, significantly advancing our comprehension of potential pathogenic mechanisms and offering perspectives for early diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords: Pathology; Transcriptomics.