Machine Learning for analysis of Multiple Sclerosis cross-tissue bulk and single-cell transcriptomics data

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Massafra, Francesco, Punzo, Samuele, Galfré, Silvia Giulia, Maglione, Alessandro, Pernice, Simone, Forti, Stefano, Rolla, Simona, Beccuti, Marco, Clerico, Marinella, Priami, Corrado, Sîrbu, Alina
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Publicado: 2026
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author Massafra, Francesco
Punzo, Samuele
Galfré, Silvia Giulia
Maglione, Alessandro
Pernice, Simone
Forti, Stefano
Rolla, Simona
Beccuti, Marco
Clerico, Marinella
Priami, Corrado
Sîrbu, Alina
author_facet Massafra, Francesco
Punzo, Samuele
Galfré, Silvia Giulia
Maglione, Alessandro
Pernice, Simone
Forti, Stefano
Rolla, Simona
Beccuti, Marco
Clerico, Marinella
Priami, Corrado
Sîrbu, Alina
contents Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system whose molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. In this study, we developed an end-to-end machine learning pipeline to analyze transcriptomic data from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and cerebrospinal fluid, integrating both bulk microarray and single-cell RNA sequencing datasets (concentrating on CD4+ and B-cells). After rigorous preprocessing, batch correction, and gene declustering, XGBoost classifiers were trained to distinguish MS patients from healthy controls. Explainable AI tools, namely SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), were employed to identify key genes driving classification, and results were compared with Differential Expression Analysis (DEA). SHAP-prioritized genes were further investigated through interaction networks and pathway enrichment analyses. The models achieved strong performance, particularly in CSF B-cells (AUC=0.94) and microarray (AUC=0.86). SHAP gene selection proved to be complementary to classical DEA. Gene clusters identified across multiple datasets highlighted immune activation, non-canonical immune checkpoints (ITK, CLEC2D, KLRG1, CEACAM1), ribosomal and translational programs, ubiquitin-proteasome regulation, lipid trafficking, and Epstein-Barr virus-related pathways. Our integrative and explainable framework reveals complementary insights beyond conventional analysis and provides novel mechanistic hypotheses and potential biomarkers for MS pathogenesis.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_05572
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Machine Learning for analysis of Multiple Sclerosis cross-tissue bulk and single-cell transcriptomics data
Massafra, Francesco
Punzo, Samuele
Galfré, Silvia Giulia
Maglione, Alessandro
Pernice, Simone
Forti, Stefano
Rolla, Simona
Beccuti, Marco
Clerico, Marinella
Priami, Corrado
Sîrbu, Alina
Genomics
Machine Learning
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system whose molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. In this study, we developed an end-to-end machine learning pipeline to analyze transcriptomic data from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and cerebrospinal fluid, integrating both bulk microarray and single-cell RNA sequencing datasets (concentrating on CD4+ and B-cells). After rigorous preprocessing, batch correction, and gene declustering, XGBoost classifiers were trained to distinguish MS patients from healthy controls. Explainable AI tools, namely SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), were employed to identify key genes driving classification, and results were compared with Differential Expression Analysis (DEA). SHAP-prioritized genes were further investigated through interaction networks and pathway enrichment analyses. The models achieved strong performance, particularly in CSF B-cells (AUC=0.94) and microarray (AUC=0.86). SHAP gene selection proved to be complementary to classical DEA. Gene clusters identified across multiple datasets highlighted immune activation, non-canonical immune checkpoints (ITK, CLEC2D, KLRG1, CEACAM1), ribosomal and translational programs, ubiquitin-proteasome regulation, lipid trafficking, and Epstein-Barr virus-related pathways. Our integrative and explainable framework reveals complementary insights beyond conventional analysis and provides novel mechanistic hypotheses and potential biomarkers for MS pathogenesis.
title Machine Learning for analysis of Multiple Sclerosis cross-tissue bulk and single-cell transcriptomics data
topic Genomics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05572