Cardiometabolic Traits, Sepsis, and Severe COVID-19: A Mendelian Randomization Investigation

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Many patients with severe COVID-19 develop sepsis. Cardiometabolic traits have been associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 and sepsis; however, it is difficult to infer causal effects from observational studies because of the possibility that any identified associations may be attributable to confounding. Here, we leverage data from large-scale genetic association studies to identify genetic proxies for body mass index (BMI), lifetime smoking score, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) liability, and apply these in Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses investigating their associations with risk of sepsis and severe COVID-19. Through leverage of randomly allocated genetic variants, this approach can better overcome the confounding that hinders causal inference in observational studies.
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news