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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Alloimmunity and Transplantation
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1411771
This article is part of the Research Topic Antibody-Mediated Rejection After Solid Organ Transplantation View all 3 articles

Causality between herpes virus infections and allograft dysfunction after tissue and organ transplantation: a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization study

Provisionally accepted
Xiaojuan Qiu Xiaojuan Qiu 1Tianjiao Ma Tianjiao Ma 2*Shishun Zhao Shishun Zhao 1*Zongyu Zheng Zongyu Zheng 3*
  • 1 School of Mathematics, Jilin University, Changchun, China
  • 2 Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, China-Japan Union Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China
  • 3 Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China

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

    Observational studies have suggested that herpes virus infections increase the risk of allograft dysfunction after tissue and organ transplantation, but it is still unclear whether this association is causal. The aim of this study was to assess the causal relationship between four herpes virus infections and allograft dysfunction.We used two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate the causality between four herpes virus infectionscytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), herpes simplex virus (HSV) and varicella zoster virus (VZV)and allograft dysfunction after tissue and organ transplantation. Based on summary data extracted from genome-wide association studies (GWAS), we chose eligible single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as instrumental variables. The Inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was used as the main analysis method, supplemented by Weighted median and MR-Egger analyses. The MR-PRESSO test, MR-Egger intercept test, heterogeneity test, leave-one-out analysis and funnel plot were used to analyze the sensitivity of MR results.We found EBV early antigen-D (EA-D) antibody levels and shingles were the only two variables associated with an increased risk of allograft dysfunction. No evidence of allograft dysfunction increasing the risk of the four herpes virus infections was observed. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of our results.Our results suggest that EBV and VZV are involved in graft rejection or dysfunction. However, the relationship between CMV and HSV infections and allograft dysfunction remains unclear and requires further clarification.

    Keywords: Mendelian randomization, tissue and organ transplantation, Allograft dysfunction, Herpes virus infection, antibody

    Received: 03 Apr 2024; Accepted: 26 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Qiu, Ma, Zhao and Zheng. 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:
    Tianjiao Ma, Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, China-Japan Union Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun, 130033, Jilin Province, China
    Shishun Zhao, School of Mathematics, Jilin University, Changchun, China
    Zongyu Zheng, Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin 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.