Prediction of the risk of transplant rejection based on RNA sequencing data of PBMCs before transplantation

Novel methods for detecting transplant rejection are craved, since conventional methods can detect ongoing rejection that may sometimes have already caused irreversible damage in transplanted organs. Here, we applied a transcriptomics database of recipients' peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) before liver or kidney transplantation on the weighted gene co-expression network and machine learning models to evaluate the risk of rejection. Gene clusters positively correlated with rejection were enriched for genes related to antiviral response and regulation/production of interleukin-1(IL-1) in liver transplantation, and genes related to innate immune responses (IL-8 and toll-like receptor signaling pathways) and T cell responses were positively correlated with rejection in kidney transplantation. Our study presents a novel approach for feature engineering based on RNA-seq data of PBMCs collected before transplantation. The features derived from this method demonstrated potential in predicting the risk of rejection and may serve as candidate predictors in future clinically applicable models.