Gut microbiota, inflammatory proteins and COVID-19: a Mendelian randomisation study

作者：Yuling Chen, Chang Chen · 发表于：Frontiers in Immunology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3389/fimmu.2024.1406291 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Medicine

Background The human gut microbiota has been identified as a potentially important factor influencing the development of COVID-19. It is believed that the disease primarily affects the organism through inflammatory pathways. With the aim of improving early diagnosis and targeted therapy, it is crucial to identify the specific gut microbiota associated with COVID-19 and to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying processes. The present study sought to investigate the potential causal relationship between the gut microbiota and COVID-19, and to determine the extent to which inflammatory proteins act as mediators in this relationship. Methods Bidirectional mendelian randomization (MR) and Two-step mediated MR analyses were applied to examine causative associations among 196 gut microbiota, 91 inflammatory proteins and COVID-19. The main analytical method used in the MR was the random effects inverse variance weighted (IVW) method. This was complemented by the Bayesian weighted Mendelian randomization (BWMR) method, which was utilized to test the hypothesis of MR. In order for the results to be deemed reliable, statistical significance was required for both methods. Validation was then carried out using an external dataset, and further meta-analyses were conducted to authenticate that the association was reliable. Results Results of our research indicated that seven gut microbiota were actively associated to the COVID-19 risk. Five inflammatory proteins were associated with ...