Exploring genetic associations between metabolites and atopic dermatitis: insights from bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis in European population

Abstract

Introduction: There is growing evidence indicating a complex interaction between blood metabolites and atopic dermatitis (AD). The objective of this study was to investigate and quantify the potential influence of plasma metabolites on AD through Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.

Methods: Our procedures followed these steps: instrument variable selection, primary analysis, replication analysis, Meta-analysis of results, reverse MR analysis, and multivariate MR (MVMR) analysis. In our study, the exposure factors were derived from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), encompassing 8,299 individuals of European descent and identifying 1,091 plasma metabolites and 309 metabolite ratios. In primary analysis, AD data, was sourced from the GWAS catalog (Accession ID: GCST90244787), comprising 60,653 cases and 804,329 controls. For replication, AD data from the Finnish R10 database included 15,208 cases and 367,046 controls. We primarily utilized the inverse variance weighting method to assess the causal relationship between blood metabolites and AD.

Results: Our study identified significant causal relationships between nine genetically predicted blood metabolites and AD. Specifically, 1-palmitoyl-2-stearoyl-GPC (16:0/18:0) (OR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.89-0.94), 1-methylnicotinamide (OR = 0.93, 95% CI 0.89-0.98), linoleoyl-arachidonoyl-glycerol (18:2/20:4) [1] (OR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.92-0.96), and 1-arachidonoyl-GPC (20:4n6) (OR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.92-0.96) were associated with a reduced risk of AD. Conversely, phosphate / linoleoyl-arachidonoyl-glycerol (18:2/20:4) [2] (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.04-1.10), docosatrienoate (22:3n3) (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.04-1.10), retinol (Vitamin A) / linoleoyl-arachidonoyl-glycerol (18:2/20:4) [2] (OR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.05-1.11), retinol (Vitamin A) / linoleoyl-arachidonoylglycerol (18:2/20:4) [1] (OR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.05-1.12), and phosphate / linoleoyl-arachidonoyl-glycerol (18:2/20:4) [1] (OR = 1.09, 95% CI 1.07-1.12 were associated with an increased risk of AD. No evidence of reverse causality was found in the previously significant results. MVMR analysis further confirmed that 1-palmitoyl-2-stearoyl-GPC (16:0/18:0) and 1-methylnicotinamide are independent and dominant contributors to the development of AD.

Conclusion: Our study revealed a causal relationship between genetically predicted blood metabolites and AD. This discovery offers specific targets for drug development in the treatment of AD patients and provides valuable insights for investigating the underlying mechanisms of AD in future research.

Keywords: Mendelian randomization; atopic dermatitis; blood metabolites; causal inference; genome-wide association study.