Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) represent a major concern for global health, whose mechanistic understanding is complicated by a complex interplay between genetic predisposition and environmental factors. Specifically, heart failure (HF), encompassing dilated cardiomyopathy (DC), ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), is a topic of substantial interest in basic and clinical research. Here, we used a Partial Correlation Coefficient-based algorithm (PCC) within the context of a meta-analysis framework to construct a Gene Regulatory Network (GRN) that identifies key regulators whose activity is perturbed in Heart Failure. By integrating data from multiple independent studies, our approach unveiled crucial regulatory associations between transcription factors (TFs) and structural genes, emphasizing their pivotal roles in regulating metabolic pathways, such as fatty acid metabolism, oxidative stress response, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, and coagulation. In addition to known associations, our analysis also identified novel regulators, including the identification of TFs FPM315 and OVOL2, which are implicated in dilated cardiomyopathies, and TEAD1 and TEAD2 in both dilated and ischemic cardiomyopathies. Moreover, we uncovered alterations in adipogenesis and oxidative phosphorylation pathways in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and discovered a role for IL2 STAT5 signaling in heart failure. Our findings underscore the importance of TF activity in the initiation and progression of cardiac disease, highlighting their potential as pharmacological targets.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) represent a major concern for global health whose mechanistic understanding is complicated by a complex interplay between genetic predisposition and environmental factors. Specifically, heart failure (HF), encompassing dilated cardiomyopathy (DC), ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), is a topic of substantial interest in basic and clinical research. Here we used a Partial Correlation Coefficient-based algorithm (PCC) within the context of a meta-analysis framework, to construct a Gene Regulatory Network (GRN) that identifies key regulators whose activity is perturbed in Heart Failure. By integrating data from multiple independent studies, our approach unveiled crucial regulatory associations between transcription factors (TFs) and structural genes, emphasizing their pivotal roles in regulating metabolic pathways, such as fatty acid metabolism, oxidative stress response, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, and coagulation. In addition to known associations, our analysis also identified novel regulators, including the identification of TFs FPM315 and MOVO-B, which are implicated in dilated cardiomyopathies, and TEAD1 and TEAD2 in both dilated and ischemic cardiomyopathies. Moreover, we uncovered alterations in adipogenesis and oxidative phosphorylation pathways in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and discovered a role for IL2 STAT5 signaling in heart failure. Our findings underscore the importance of TFs activity in the initiation and progression of cardiac disease, highlighting their potential as pharmacological targets.

Summary: We performed a large-scale immunogenomic analysis of ∼13,000 transcriptomic profiles from 10 autoimmune diseases, integrating publicly available datasets from both blood and tissue. Using meta-analysis, we identified core immune mechanisms underlying autoimmunity, including strong interferon responses, inflammation, and adaptive immune suppression, alongside disease-specific signatures. To enhance biological interpretability, we derived higher-order immune features - such as cell type proportions, cytokine levels, pathway activity, transcription factor regulation, and miRNA activity - and organized them into 15 coherent immune modules. These modules enabled systematic cross-disease comparisons, revealing shared and distinct immunopathological patterns. The inflammation module, in particular, was associated with disease severity and predicted treatment response across multiple conditions. This modular framework offers a powerful tool for understanding immune dysregulation and advancing precision medicine in autoimmune diseases. To support reproducibility and enable others to build upon this work, we developed an interactive app to explore and download the complete dataset and associated results.