Identification and Exploration of Novel Macrophage M2-Related Biomarkers and Potential Therapeutic Agents in Endometriosis.

{"sci_version": "1.2", "schema": "https://corpus.bntrg.co.uk/sci/1.0/sci.schema.json", "id": "pmid:34295919", "kind": "science-record", "revision": 8, "content_hash": "sha256:ad421b99f11304972c12ed9b8cc554f0ddf8b8091b00c128e8e25d1eb6615e92", "created_at": "2026-11-01T15:41:44Z", "updated_at": "2026-11-01T22:47:09Z", "generator": {"name": "corpus-assay-engine", "run_id": "reading-sci-2026-11-01"}, "paper": {"state": "complete", "title": "Identification and Exploration of Novel Macrophage M2-Related Biomarkers and Potential Therapeutic Agents in Endometriosis.", "doi": "10.3389/fmolb.2021.656145", "pmid": "34295919", "authors": ["Zhongqi Cui", "Ramesh Bhandari", "Qin Lei", "Mingzhi Lu", "Lei Zhang", "Mengmei Zhang", "Fenyong Sun", "Lijin Feng", "Shasha Zhao"], "journal": "Frontiers in molecular biosciences", "year": 2021, "abstract": "Endometriosis (EM) is a chronic neuroinflammatory disorder that is associated with pain and infertility that affects ∼10% of reproductive-age women. The pathophysiology and etiology of EM remain poorly understood, and diagnostic delays are common. Exploration of the underlying molecular mechanism, as well as novel diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets, is urgently needed. Inflammation is known to play a key role in the development of lesions, which are a defining feature of the disorder. In our research, the CIBERSORT and WGCNA algorithms were used to establish a weighted gene co-expression network and to identify macrophage-related hub genes using data downloaded from the GEO database (GSE11691, 7305). The analysis identified 1,157 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in EM lesions, of which five were identified as being related to M2 macrophages and were validated as differentially expressed by qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Of these putative novel biomarker genes, bridging integrator 2 (BIN2), chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5), and macrophage mannose receptor 1 (MRC1) were upregulated, while spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) and metalloproteinase 12 (ADAM12) were downregulated in ectopic endometria vs. normal endometria. Meanwhile, 23 potentially therapeutic small molecules for EM were obtained from the cMAP database, among which topiramate, isoflupredone, adiphenine, dexverapamil, MS-275, and celastrol were the top six molecules with the highest absolute enrichment values. This is our first attempt to use the CIBERSORT and WGCNA algorithms for the identification of novel Mϕ2 macrophage-related biomarkers of EM. Our findings provide novel insights into the impact of immune cells on the etiology of EM; nevertheless, further investigation of these key genes and therapeutic drugs is needed to validate their effects on EM.", "claims": [{"id": "claim-method", "statement": "Initially, the merged and batch-normalized gene expression data transformed with log2 were used to screen the DEGs with log (fold-change) values ≥ 0.5 and p-values< 0.05 by the “limma” R package.", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:34295919", "locator": "sections[15] \"Identification of Novel Diagnostic Markers for Endometriosis\" paragraph 2", "quote": "Initially, the merged and batch-normalized gene expression data transformed with log2 were used to screen the DEGs with log (fold-change) values ≥ 0.5 and p-values< 0.05 by the “limma” R package."}], "state": "complete"}, {"id": "claim-data-access", "statement": "The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. 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