AUTHOR=Yang Mengyue , Bi Wen , Zhang Zhijie 

TITLE=Gut microbiota and risk of endocarditis: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1320095

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1320095

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Background</title><p>The associations between gut microbiota and cardiovascular disease have been reported in previous studies. However, the relationship between gut microbiota and endocarditis remains unclear.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>A bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study was performed to detect the association between gut microbiota and endocarditis. Inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was considered the main result. Simultaneously, heterogeneity and pleiotropy tests were conducted.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>Our study suggests that family Victivallaceae (<italic>p</italic> = 0.020), genus <italic>Eubacterium fissicatena</italic> group (<italic>p</italic> = 0.047), genus Escherichia Shigella (<italic>p</italic> = 0.024), genus Peptococcus (<italic>p</italic> = 0.028) and genus Sellimonas (<italic>p</italic> = 0.005) play protective roles in endocarditis. Two microbial taxa, including genus Blautia (<italic>p</italic> = 0.006) and genus Ruminococcus2 (<italic>p</italic> = 0.024) increase the risk of endocarditis. At the same time, endocarditis has a negative effect on genus <italic>Eubacterium fissicatena</italic> group (<italic>p</italic> = 0.048). Besides, no heterogeneity or pleiotropy was found in this study.</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>Our study emphasized the certain role of specific gut microbiota in patients with endocarditis and clarified the negative effect of endocarditis on gut microbiota.</p></sec>