Genetic support for the causal association between 91 circulating inflammatory proteins and atopic dermatitis: A...

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a refractory disease that occurs in clinical practice. One of the most common inflammatory skin diseases, its occurrence and development are related to inflammation. Nevertheless, the precise nature of the relationship between circulating inflammatory proteins and AD remains uncertain.

A two-sample MR analysis was performed to determine the causal relationship between the expression of 91 circulating inflammatory proteins and AD by using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics data from the FinnGen consortia. The robustness of the MR results was assessed by means of sensitivity analysis.

The causal relationship between the expression of nine specific circulating inflammatory proteins and AD was corroborated by the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method. The findings indicated that three circulating inflammatory proteins, namely, interleukin-18 receptor 1 [OR (CI) = 1.08 (1.05-1.11); p = 0.000001)], interleukin-8 [OR (CI) = 1.07 (1.00-1.14); p = 0.036244)], and tumor necrosis factor ligand superfamily member 14 [OR (CI) = 1.05 (1.00-1.10); p = 0.036842)], were positively correlated with AD. Additionally, six circulating inflammatory proteins were negatively correlated with AD: the T-cell surface glycoprotein CD5 [OR (CI) = 0.89 (0.84-0.95); p = 0.000191)], macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1 [OR (CI) = 0.93 (0.88-0.99); p = 0.031422)], fractalkine [OR (CI) = 0.91 (0.85-0.97); p = 0.003067)], interleukin-24 [OR (CI) = 0.91 (0.83-0.99); p = 0.031673)], signaling lymphocytic activation molecule [OR(CI) = 0.94 (0.89-1.00); p = 0.039818)], and urokinase-type plasminogen activator [OR(CI) = 0.95 (0.90-1.00); p = 0.037037)].

This study confirms the potential causal relationship between circulating inflammatory proteins and AD and provides guidance for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of AD.