Abstract
Background: In epidemiological studies, it has been proven that the occurrence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is related to an increased risk of infectious diseases. However, it is still unclear whether the relationship is casual. Methods: We employed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to clarify the causal effect of T2DM on high-frequency infectious diseases: sepsis, skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs), urinary tract infections (UTIs), pneumonia, and genito-urinary infection (GUI) in pregnancy. And then, we analyzed the genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis of European-descent individuals and conducted T2DM-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as instrumental variables (IVs) that were associated with genome-wide significance (p < 5 × 10–8). MR estimates were obtained using the inverse variance-weighted (IVW), the MR-Egger regression, the simple mode (SM), weighted median, and weighted mode. Results: The UK Biobank (UKB) cohort (n > 500,000) provided data for GWASs on infectious diseases. MR analysis showed little evidence of a causal relationship of T2DM with five mentioned infections’ (sepsis, SSTI, UTI, pneumonia, and GUI in pregnancy) susceptibility [odds ratio (OR) = 0.99999, p = 0.916; OR = 0.99986, p = 0.233; OR = 0.99973, p = 0.224; OR = 0.99997, p = 0.686; OR, 1.00002, p = 0.766]. Sensitivity analysis showed similar results, indicating the robustness of causality. There were no heterogeneity and pleiotropic bias. Conclusion: T2DM would not be causally associated with high-frequency infectious diseases (including sepsis, SSTI, UTI, pneumonia, and GUI in pregnancy).
RAS ID
39601
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
2021
Volume
12
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences / Centre for Precision Health / Graduate Research
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Publisher
Frontiers Media S. A.
Recommended Citation
Wang, H., Guo, Z., Zheng, Y., Yu, C., Hou, H., & Chen, B. (2021). No casual relationship between T2DM and the risk of infectious diseases: A two-sample mendelian randomization study. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.720874
Comments
Wang, H., Guo, Z., Zheng, Y., Yu, C., Hou, H., & Chen, B. (2021). No casual relationship between T2DM and the risk of infectious diseases: A two-sample mendelian randomization study. Frontiers in Genetics, 12, article 720874. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.720874