Revealing the causal relationship between cathepsin and inflammatory disease of wrist through Mendelian randomization.

ABSTRACT: Although observational studies have suggested associations between cathepsins and inflammatory wrist diseases, critical controversies persist regarding the causality, directionality, and disease-specific mechanisms of these relationships. Conventional clinical studies are unable to determine whether cathepsin-disease associations reflect true causality or spurious links driven by confounding factors or reverse causation. Moreover, systematic causal analyses focusing on protease-mediated mechanisms in wrist-specific inflammatory pathologies remain notably absent. To address these gaps, this study employs bidirectional 2-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate the causal effects of cathepsins on inflammatory wrist diseases and elucidate their disease-specific roles, thereby provid

SUBMITTER: Qu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12323946 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature