Causal associations between circulating inflammatory cytokines and blinding eye diseases: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis

• DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1324651
• Publication Date: 2024-01-23T04:17:03Z
• Authors: Menghao Teng; Jiachen Wang; Xiaochen Su; Ye Tian; Xiaomin Ye; Yingang Zhang
• Keywords: Blinding; Mendelian Randomization; Proinflammatory cytokine

Background Previous studies have explored the associations between circulating inflammatory cytokines and blinding eye diseases, including glaucoma, cataract macular degeneration. However, causality of these remains controversial. This study employs a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate causal relationships 41 diseases. Methods Summary data for cataract, degeneration were publicly available. The inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was employed as main analysis method. Additionally, various sensitivity tests, MR–Egger regression, median, weight mode, Cochran’s Q test, MR pleiotropy Residual Sum Outlier leave-one-out conducted evaluate stability results. Results IVW identified six causally associated with risk diseases: Monokine induced by interferon-gamma (MIG) interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), IL-6, IL-10, platelet derived growth factor BB (PDGFbb) MIG hepatocyte (HGF) it is noteworthy that none remained significant after Bonferroni correction ( p < 0.0004). Reverse analyses indicated may lead decrease in vascular endothelial (VEGF) levels (OR: 3.326 × 10 −04 , 95% CI: 5.198 −07 − 2.129 −01 = 0.0151). Conclusion highlights potential roles specific development Moreover, suggests VEGF likely be involved downstream. These findings offer insights early prevention novel therapeutic strategies