AUTHOR=Huang Shi-Jia , Li Rong , Xu Shuo , Liu Yuan , Li Sheng-Hui , Duan Sheng-Zhong 

TITLE=Assessment of bidirectional relationships between circulating cytokines and periodontitis: Insights from a mendelian randomization analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2023.1124638

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2023.1124638

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> The purpose of this Mendelian randomization (MR) study was to assess the causal relationship between circulating cytokines and periodontitis.</p><p><bold>Materials and methods:</bold> Based on the aggregated statistics of the largest publicly available genome-wide association study (GWAS), we applied a bidirectional two-sample MR. MR analyses were conducted using Inverse variance weighted (IVW), Robust Adjusted Profile Score (RAPS), Maximum likelihood (ML), Weighted median and MR-Egger, and results obtained from IVW served as the primary outcome. Cochran Q test was used to test the heterogeneity. MR-Egger intercept test and MR polymorphism residual and outlier test (MR-PRESSO) were used for polymorphism analysis. Leave-one-out sensitivity and funnel plots were used for sensitivity analysis.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> The IVW method indicated that interleukin 9 (IL9) had a positive causal relationship with periodontitis [odds ratio (OR) = 1.199, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.049–1.372, <italic>p</italic> = 0.008], and interleukin 17 (IL17) had a negative causal relationship with periodontitis (OR = 0.847, 95% CI = 0.735–0.976, <italic>p</italic> = 0.022). In bidirectional MR, periodontitis was not causally related to any of the cytokines in our study.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> Our findings provided evidence in support of potential causal associations between circulating IL9/IL17 and periodontitis.</p>