PONE-D-25-10015Identification of immune-related biomarkers associated with allergic rhinitis and development of a sample diagnostic modelPLOS ONE

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Shengqian Sun

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This manuscript presents a comprehensive bioinformatics and experimental approach to identify immune-related biomarkers for allergic rhinitis (AR) and to develop a gene-based diagnostic model. The authors successfully integrate transcriptomic data, network analysis, machine learning, and animal model validation. The study is well-structured, methodologically sound, and contributes valuable insights into AR diagnostics and potential therapeutic targets. In my opinion, the manuscript present a well-executed study offering a novel and clinically relevant diagnostic model for AR based on immune-related biomarkers. This manuscript is suitable for publication in is current form.

Reviewer #2: Line 33 and 36. sva and limma need full names or nomenclature. What software have been used for the package? Please be specific in the abstract.

Line 39. SVM and ROC are famous but still need full name at the first time showing up.

Line 23. Although it is the trend fashion using 'We' and it seems for emphasizing the major 'achievement' of a study in generally abstract and conclusion sections, please apply passive transformation for most part of scientific manuscript.

Line 169. Any ethical review protocol has been applied for the mice experiment?

Line 229. 'Error! Reference source not found.' seems something wrong.

Line 254. The author should provide more infomation about Figure 5 volcano plot, what information can be extracted from the volcano plot?

Line 367. substantiates may be too strong for science, probably using indicates or suggests would be better.

Line 380. 'In line with our study,' please indicate which figures or tables are 'in line with' and how?

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Reviewer #1: Yes:  Dr Daniel Elbirt

Reviewer #2: No

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Identification of immune-related biomarkers associated with allergic rhinitis and development of a sample diagnostic model

PONE-D-25-10015R1

Dear Dr. Zhang,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Shengqian Sun

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Regarding your email query about the clarification of Dr. XueXia Liu’s affiliation, this minor correction should be addressed during the production stage in accordance with PLoS ONE policy. Please notify the production team once your manuscript reaches that phase.

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: The authors have significantly improved the manuscript, and all key issues have been addressed, so I have no further questions.

Cheers,

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean? ). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy .

Reviewer #2: No

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