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Main Authors: Punzo, Samuele, Galfrè, Silvia Giulia, Massafra, Francesco, Maglione, Alessandro, Priami, Corrado, Sîrbu, Alina
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22484
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author Punzo, Samuele
Galfrè, Silvia Giulia
Massafra, Francesco
Maglione, Alessandro
Priami, Corrado
Sîrbu, Alina
author_facet Punzo, Samuele
Galfrè, Silvia Giulia
Massafra, Francesco
Maglione, Alessandro
Priami, Corrado
Sîrbu, Alina
contents We present a machine learning pipeline for biomarker discovery in Multiple Sclerosis (MS), integrating eight publicly available microarray datasets from Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC). After robust preprocessing we trained an XGBoost classifier optimized via Bayesian search. SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) were used to identify key features for model prediction, indicating thus possible biomarkers. These were compared with genes identified through classical Differential Expression Analysis (DEA). Our comparison revealed both overlapping and unique biomarkers between SHAP and DEA, suggesting complementary strengths. Enrichment analysis confirmed the biological relevance of SHAP-selected genes, linking them to pathways such as sphingolipid signaling, Th1/Th2/Th17 cell differentiation, and Epstein-Barr virus infection all known to be associated with MS. This study highlights the value of combining explainable AI (xAI) with traditional statistical methods to gain deeper insights into disease mechanism.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_22484
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Machine Learning Pipeline for Multiple Sclerosis Biomarker Discovery: Comparing explainable AI and Traditional Statistical Approaches
Punzo, Samuele
Galfrè, Silvia Giulia
Massafra, Francesco
Maglione, Alessandro
Priami, Corrado
Sîrbu, Alina
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
We present a machine learning pipeline for biomarker discovery in Multiple Sclerosis (MS), integrating eight publicly available microarray datasets from Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC). After robust preprocessing we trained an XGBoost classifier optimized via Bayesian search. SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) were used to identify key features for model prediction, indicating thus possible biomarkers. These were compared with genes identified through classical Differential Expression Analysis (DEA). Our comparison revealed both overlapping and unique biomarkers between SHAP and DEA, suggesting complementary strengths. Enrichment analysis confirmed the biological relevance of SHAP-selected genes, linking them to pathways such as sphingolipid signaling, Th1/Th2/Th17 cell differentiation, and Epstein-Barr virus infection all known to be associated with MS. This study highlights the value of combining explainable AI (xAI) with traditional statistical methods to gain deeper insights into disease mechanism.
title A Machine Learning Pipeline for Multiple Sclerosis Biomarker Discovery: Comparing explainable AI and Traditional Statistical Approaches
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22484