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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Intestinal Microbiome
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1398756
This article is part of the Research Topic Improve Immunity against Infection and Tumor by Regulating Gut Microbiota View all articles

Gut microbiota, circulating inflammatory proteins and sepsis: A bi-directional Mendelian randomization study

Provisionally accepted
Zuming Li Zuming Li 1Liangcai Lin Liangcai Lin 2Yunqi Kong Yunqi Kong 3Jieni Feng Jieni Feng 1Xiaolei Ren Xiaolei Ren 1Yushi Wang Yushi Wang 1Xueru Chen Xueru Chen 1Siyi Wu Siyi Wu 1Rongyuan Yang Rongyuan Yang 4Jiqiang Li Jiqiang Li 4Yuntao Liu Yuntao Liu 4Yue Lu Yue Lu 1,4*Jiankun Chen Jiankun Chen 4
  • 1 Second Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 2 Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 3 The Second Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 4 State Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background Gut microbiota is closely related to the occurrence and development of sepsis. However, the causal effects between the gut microbiota and sepsis, and whether circulating inflammatory proteins act as mediators, remain unclear. Methods Gut microbiota, circulating inflammatory proteins, and four sepsis-related outcomes were identified from large-scale genome wide association studies (GWAS) summary data. Inverse Variance Weighted (IVW) was the primary statistical method. Additionally, we investigated whether circulating inflammatory proteins play a mediating role in the pathway from gut microbiota to the four sepsis-related outcomes. Results There were 14 positive and 15 negative causal effects between genetic liability in the gut microbiota and four sepsis-related outcomes. Additionally, eight positive and four negative causal effects were observed between circulating inflammatory proteins and the four sepsis-related outcomes. Circulating inflammatory proteins do not act as mediators. Conclusions Gut microbiota and circulating inflammatory proteins were causally associated with the four sepsis-related outcomes. However, circulating inflammatory proteins did not appear to mediate the pathway from gut microbiota to the four sepsis-related outcomes.

    Keywords: Circulating inflammatory proteins, Genome-Wide Association Study, Gut Microbiota, Mendelian randomization, Sepsis

    Received: 10 Mar 2024; Accepted: 08 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Lin, Kong, Feng, Ren, Wang, Chen, Wu, Yang, Li, Liu, Lu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yue Lu, Second Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510000, Guangdong Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.