tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Front Immunol
. 2023 Sep 1;14:1173974.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1173974. eCollection 2023. Causal effects of the gut microbiome on COVID-19 susceptibility and severity: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study
Meng-Mei Zhong[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jia-Hao Xie[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Yao Feng[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Shao-Hui Zhang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Jiang-Nan Xia[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Li Tan[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Ning-Xin Chen[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Xiao-Lin Su[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Qian Zhang[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Yun-Zhi Feng[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Yue Guo[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused a global pandemic, with potential severity. We aimed to investigate whether genetically predicted gut microbiome is associated with susceptibility and severity of COVID-19 risk.
Methods: Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis of two sets with different significance thresholds was carried out to infer the causal relationship between the gut microbiome and COVID-19. SNPs associated with the composition of the gut microbiome (n = 5,717,754) and with COVID-19 susceptibility (n = 14,328,058), COVID-19 severity (n = 11,707,239), and COVID-19 hospitalization (n = 12,018,444) from publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The random-effect inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was used to determine causality. Three more MR techniques-MR Egger, weighted median, and weighted mode-and a thorough sensitivity analysis were also used to confirm the findings.
Results: IVW showed that 18 known microbial taxa were causally associated with COVID-19. Among them, six microbial taxa were causally associated with COVID-19 susceptibility; seven microbial taxa were causally associated with COVID-19 severity ; five microbial taxa were causally associated with COVID-19 hospitalization. Sensitivity analyses showed no evidence of pleiotropy or heterogeneity. Then, the predicted 37 species of the gut microbiome deserve further study.
Conclusion: This study found that some microbial taxa were protective factors or risky factors for COVID-19, which may provide helpful biomarkers for asymptomatic diagnosis and potential therapeutic targets for COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; Mendelian randomization; gut microbiome; severity; susceptibility.
. 2023 Sep 1;14:1173974.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1173974. eCollection 2023. Causal effects of the gut microbiome on COVID-19 susceptibility and severity: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study
Meng-Mei Zhong[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jia-Hao Xie[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Yao Feng[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Shao-Hui Zhang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Jiang-Nan Xia[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Li Tan[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Ning-Xin Chen[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Xiao-Lin Su[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Qian Zhang[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Yun-Zhi Feng[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Yue Guo[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 37720222
- PMCID: PMC10502427
- DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1173974
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused a global pandemic, with potential severity. We aimed to investigate whether genetically predicted gut microbiome is associated with susceptibility and severity of COVID-19 risk.
Methods: Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis of two sets with different significance thresholds was carried out to infer the causal relationship between the gut microbiome and COVID-19. SNPs associated with the composition of the gut microbiome (n = 5,717,754) and with COVID-19 susceptibility (n = 14,328,058), COVID-19 severity (n = 11,707,239), and COVID-19 hospitalization (n = 12,018,444) from publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The random-effect inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was used to determine causality. Three more MR techniques-MR Egger, weighted median, and weighted mode-and a thorough sensitivity analysis were also used to confirm the findings.
Results: IVW showed that 18 known microbial taxa were causally associated with COVID-19. Among them, six microbial taxa were causally associated with COVID-19 susceptibility; seven microbial taxa were causally associated with COVID-19 severity ; five microbial taxa were causally associated with COVID-19 hospitalization. Sensitivity analyses showed no evidence of pleiotropy or heterogeneity. Then, the predicted 37 species of the gut microbiome deserve further study.
Conclusion: This study found that some microbial taxa were protective factors or risky factors for COVID-19, which may provide helpful biomarkers for asymptomatic diagnosis and potential therapeutic targets for COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; Mendelian randomization; gut microbiome; severity; susceptibility.