Association between rheumatoid arthritis and periodontitis: a study based on a two-sample mendelian randomisation...

Area of Science:

• Genetics
• Immunology
• Oral Health

Background:

• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and periodontitis (PD) share recognized associations.
• Traditional epidemiological studies face limitations in establishing causal links.
• Genetic approaches, like Mendelian randomization (MR), offer robust methods to investigate such associations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To genetically determine the association between Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Periodontitis (PD).
• To utilize genetic variations as instrumental variables for Mendelian randomization analysis.
• To assess if RA is a causal factor for PD.

Main Methods:

• Downloaded Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Periodontitis (PD) data from the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI).
• Employed Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis, including MR-Egger regression, MR-PRESSO, and inverse-variance weighting (IVW).
• Assessed for horizontal pleiotropy and heterogeneity using MR-Egger intercept, MR-PRESSO, funnel plots, and leave-one-out methods.

Main Results:

• Identified 26 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) strongly associated with RA.
• Mendelian randomization analyses indicated that RA is a likely causal factor for chronic Periodontitis (PD) (e.g., IVW OR=1.191, P=0.006).
• No significant genetic association was found between RA and acute Periodontitis (PD); no evidence of horizontal pleiotropy or heterogeneity was detected.

Conclusions:

• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is genetically implicated as a risk factor for Periodontitis (PD).
• The association is specific to the chronic form of Periodontitis (PD).
• No causal link was established between Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and acute Periodontitis (PD).