Zhang Yan, Xu Weiwei, Huang Wenqi, Zhang An
Department of Critical Care Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Department of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2025 Aug 8;104(32):e43779. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000043779.
Immune cells are known to be associated with sepsis. However, whether these associations represent a causal relationship and whether inflammatory proteins act as mediators remain unclear. A mediation Mendelian Randomization (MR) approach was employed to assess the correlation between immune cells and sepsis, along with the mediating effects of inflammatory proteins in this relationship. Inverse variance weighting (IVW) was used as the main statistical method, with MR-Egger and weighted median serving as supplements in the preliminary MR. Sensitivity analyses were implemented using Cochrane Q test, MR-Egger intercept, Mendelian Randomization Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier and leave-one-out analysis. Subsequently, we performed replication MR, meta-analysis, Reverse MR, and linkage disequilibrium score (LDSC) regression to thoroughly verify causation. In addition, we explored whether inflammatory proteins act as mediating factors in the pathway from the immune cells to sepsis. After conducting a meta-analysis of the discovery and replication cohorts, there were 4 risk and 7 protective causal effects between genetic liability in immune cells and sepsis, with no evidence of reverse causality. Among the 92 inflammatory proteins investigated, only 2 were found to be associated with sepsis. However, inflammatory proteins did not act as mediating factors. This study elucidated the critical role of specific immune cell traits in the progression of sepsis. Our findings provide a foundation for future research into targeted immunomodulatory therapies, potentially improving patient outcomes in sepsis, and offering new insights into the complex immunological dynamics of this condition.
已知免疫细胞与败血症有关。然而,这些关联是否代表因果关系以及炎症蛋白是否作为介导因子仍不清楚。采用中介孟德尔随机化(MR)方法来评估免疫细胞与败血症之间的相关性,以及炎症蛋白在这种关系中的中介作用。采用逆方差加权(IVW)作为主要统计方法,在初步MR中以MR-Egger和加权中位数作为补充。使用Cochrane Q检验、MR-Egger截距、孟德尔随机化多效性残差和离群值以及留一法分析进行敏感性分析。随后,我们进行了重复MR、荟萃分析、反向MR和连锁不平衡评分(LDSC)回归,以彻底验证因果关系。此外,我们探讨了炎症蛋白是否在从免疫细胞到败血症的途径中作为中介因子。在对发现和重复队列进行荟萃分析后,免疫细胞遗传易感性与败血症之间存在4种风险和7种保护因果效应,没有反向因果关系的证据。在研究的92种炎症蛋白中,仅发现2种与败血症相关。然而,炎症蛋白并未作为中介因子。本研究阐明了特定免疫细胞特征在败血症进展中的关键作用。我们的研究结果为未来靶向免疫调节治疗的研究提供了基础,有可能改善败血症患者的预后,并为这种疾病复杂的免疫动力学提供新的见解。
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