免疫细胞与膝骨关节炎之间因果作用:一项两样本双向孟德尔随机化分析

Causal relationship between immune cells and knee osteoarthritis:a two-sample bi-directional Mendelian randomization analysis

背景:膝骨关节炎是一种常见的关节软骨及周围组织损伤的慢性炎症性疾病,而免疫细胞在膝骨关节炎免疫炎症反应中起到重要作用,但其中的具体机制仍有待深入研究。目的:采用孟德尔随机化方法来评估731种免疫细胞表型与膝骨关节炎风险之间的潜在因果关系。方法:使用全基因组关联分析(GWAS)目录中公开获取731种免疫细胞表型的全基因组关联分析统计数据(从GCST0001391到GCST0002121)和IEUGWAS数据库中膝骨关节炎的全基因组关联分析数据(ebi-a-GCST007090)。采用逆方差加权法、MR-Egger回归法、加权中位数法、加权模型法和简单模型法来研究免疫细胞与膝骨关节炎之间的因果关系。敏感性分析用于检验孟德尔随机化分析结果是否可靠,然后以同样方法进行反向孟德尔随机化分析。结果与结论:①正向分析结果表明,共有4种免疫细胞表型与膝骨关节炎有显著的因果关系(FDR<0.20),其中B细胞中的CD27 on CD24+CD27+(OR=1.026,P=0.00026,Pfdr=0.18)、髓系细胞中的CD33 on CD33dim HLA DR-(OR=1.014,P=0.00050,Pfdr=0.18)以及Treg细胞中的CD45RA+CD28-CD8br%CD8br(OR=1.001,P=0.00078,Pfdr=0.18)与膝骨关节炎风险呈直接的正向因果关联;单核细胞中PDL-1 on monocyte(OR=0.952,P=0.00098,Pfdr=0.18)与膝骨关节炎风险呈直接的负向因果关联。②反向分析结果表明,当膝骨关节炎作为暴露数据时,与731种免疫细胞表型均不具有显著因果关系(FDR<0.20)。③敏感性分析结果显示:双向孟德尔随机化的Cochran’s Q检验和MR-Egger回归法结果P值均大于0.05,表明免疫细胞表型与膝骨关节炎之间的因果效应分析不存在显著的异质性和多效性。④上述结果证实,CD27 on CD24+CD27+,CD33 on CD33dim HLA DR-,CD45RA+CD28-CD8br%CD8br以及PDL-1 on monocyte免疫细胞表型与膝骨关节炎之间可能具有较为显著的潜在因果关系,这为研究膝骨关节炎的生物学机制及探索膝骨关节炎的早期防治提供有价值的线索,也为干预性药物的开发提供了新的方向。

BACKGROUND:Knee osteoarthritis(KOA)is a common chronic inflammatory disease that causes damage to joint cartilage and surrounding tissues.Immune cells play an important role in the immune-inflammatory response in knee osteoarthritis,but the specific mechanisms involved are still not fully understood.OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the potential causal relationship between 731 immune cell phenotypes and the risk of knee osteoarthritis using Mendelian randomization.METHODS:Summary statistics of genome-wide association studies(GWAS)for 731 immune cell phenotypes(from GCST0001391 to GCST0002121)obtained from the GWAS catalog and GWAS data for knee osteoarthritis from the IEUGWAS database(ebi-a-GCST007090)were used.Inverse variance-weighted method,MR-Egger regression,weighted median method,weighted mode method,and simple mode method were employed to investigate the causal relationship between immune cells and knee osteoarthritis.Sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the reliability of the Mendelian randomization results.Reverse Mendelian randomization analysis was also performed using the same methods.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The forward MR analysis indicated significant causal relationships(FDR<0.20)between knee osteoarthritis and four immune cell phenotypes,namely CD27 on CD24+CD27+in B cells(OR=1.026,P=0.00026,Pfdr=0.18),CD33 on CD33dim HLA DR-in myeloid cells(OR=1.014,P=0.00050,Pfdr=0.18),and CD45RA+CD28-CD8br%CD8br in Treg cells(OR=1.001,P=0.00078,Pfdr=0.18),and PDL-1 on monocytes in mononuclear cells(OR=0.952,P=0.00098,Pfdr=0.18).These immune cell phenotypes showed direct positive or negative causal associations with the risk of knee osteoarthritis.Reverse Mendelian randomization analysis revealed no significant causal relationships(FDR<0.20)between knee osteoarthritis as exposure and any of the 731 immune cell phenotypes.The results of sensitivity analysis show that the P-values of the Cochran’s Q test and the MR-Egger regression method for bidirectional Mendelian randomization were both greater than 0.05,indicating that there is no significant heterogeneity and pleiotropy in the causal effect analysis between immune cell phenotypes and knee osteoarthritis.To conclude,there may be four potential causal relationships between immune cell phenotypes,such as CD27 on CD24+CD27+cells,CD33 on CD33dim HLA DR-cells,CD45RA+CD28-CD8br%CD8br cells,and PDL-1 on monocytes,and knee osteoarthritis.These findings provide valuable clues for studying the biological mechanisms of knee osteoarthritis and exploring early prevention and treatment strategies.They also offer new directions for the development of intervention drugs.