Shared genetic investigation of asthma and blood eosinophils in relation to chronic rhinosinusitis

An epidemiological association among asthma, blood eosinophil level and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is well established, but whether consistent genetic relationships exist, and whether this reflects a shared genetic etiology between CRS and asthma or blood eosinophil level remains unclear.

Data from CRS patients (N = 1,255) and healthy controls (N = 1,032) were reviewed retrospectively to investigate associations between clinical characteristics and CRS. Data from white blood cells in the UK biobank (N = 173,480), asthma in the Trans-National Asthma Genetic Consortium (127,669) and CRS (N = 272,922) or nasal polyps (N = 264,107) in the FinnGen consortium were used to conduct genetic study, including linkage disequilibrium score regression analysis to detect genetic associations between aforementioned variables, Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to investigate causal relationships of asthma and blood eosinophil levels on CRS, and Bayesian co-localization to consolidate MR findings and to identify shared genetic signals.

We found that blood eosinophil count, blood eosinophil percentages and asthma shared positive and causal genetic correlations with CRS (all q < 0.0001) and CRS with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) (all q < 0.0001) in both our observational and genetic study. Through colocalization analysis, 4 loci are shared among asthma, CRS and CRSwNP, 7 loci are shared among blood eosinophil count, CRS and CRSwNP, 2 loci are unique to blood eosinophil count and CRS, and 3 loci are unique to blood eosinophil count and CRSwNP.

These findings contribute to understanding CRS etiology, and provide insights for intervention and treatment target for CRS comorbid with asthma or high blood eosinophil levels.