AUTHOR=Ai Qixiong , Yang Bo 

TITLE=Are inflammatory bowel diseases associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 susceptibility and severity? A two-sample Mendelian randomization study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2023.1095050

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2023.1095050

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Due to inconsistent findings in observational studies regarding the relationship between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), and COVID-19, our objective is to explore a potential causative correlation between IBD and COVID-19 susceptibility and its severity using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Using summary data from genome-wide association studies, IBD, including UC and CD, were used as exposure instruments, while COVID-19 susceptibility, hospitalization, and very severe illness were employed as the outcome. The five analysis methods were adopted to evaluate the causal relationship between two diseases, with the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method being the most important. Also, sensitivity analyses were done to make sure that the main results of the MR analyses were reliable.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> In the analysis using five methods, all <italic>p</italic>-values were higher than 0.05. There was no association between IBD and COVID-19 susceptibility, hospitalization, and severity in our MR study. The random-effect model was applied due to the existence of heterogeneity. MR-Egger regression revealed no indication of directional pleiotropy, and sensitivity analysis revealed similar relationships.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> This MR study found no evidence to support that IBD (which includes UC and CD) increases the risk of COVID-19 susceptibility or severity. Our result needs further confirmation through larger epidemiological studies.</p>