The Effect of Peripheral Immune Cell Counts on the Risk of Multiple Sclerosis: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Frontiers in Immunology

Liyang Liu¹  Liying Cui²  Di He³  Peng Zou³  Dongchao Shen⁴ 

[1] PUMC), Beijing, China;Department of Cardiac Surgery, Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, Beijing, China;;Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College (CAMS &Peking Union Medical College M.D. Program, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China;

关键词: multiple sclerosis;    mendelian randomization (MR);    genome wide association study (GWAS);    peripheral immune cell count;    NKT cell;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fimmu.2022.867693

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

ObjectivesMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex central nervous system (CNS) demyelinating disease, the etiology of which involves the interplay between genetic and environmental factors. We aimed to determine whether genetically predicted peripheral immune cell counts may have a causal effect on MS.MethodsWe used genetic variants strongly associated with cell counts of circulating leukocyte, lymphocyte, monocyte, neutrophil, eosinophil, and basophil, in addition to some subpopulations of T and B lymphocyte, as instrumental variables (IVs) to perform Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses. The effect of immune cell counts on MS risk was measured using the summary statistics from the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (IMSGC) genome-wide association studies (GWAS).ResultsOur findings indicated that higher leucocyte count [odds ratio (OR), 1.24; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.07 - 1.43; p = 0.0039] and lymphocyte count (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.01 – 1.35; p = 0.0317) were causally associated with MS susceptibility. In addition, we also found that increase of genetically predicted natural killer T (NKT) cell count is also associated with an increase MS risk (OR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.06 - 1.45; p = 0.0082).ConclusionsThese findings show that the genetic predisposition to higher peripheral immune cell counts can exert a causal effect on MS risk, which confirms the crucial role played by peripheral immunity in MS. Particularly, the causal association between NKT cell count and MS underscores the relevance of exploring the functional roles of NKT cells in disease pathogenesis in future.

【 授权许可】

Unknown