The results suggest that the seven disease candidate genes have diagnostic value in distinguishing IPF groups from control groups: COL14A1 (AUC = 0.964), COL17A1 (AUC = 0.915), HMCN1 (AUC = 0.961), ITGA10 (AUC = 0.946), MMP7 (AUC = 0.937), OGN (AUC = 0.894) and ROBO2(AUC = 0.856) (Supplementary Table S1). The gene discussed is HMCN1; the disease is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.