COVID-19, inflammatory cytokines, and digestive system cancers: a bidirectional Mendelian study and mediation analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Gastrointestinal cancers pose a significant global health burden, contributing to 8% of cancer cases and a substantial number of deaths each year. Meanwhile, the Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19) pandemic has potentially elevated the risk of digestive system cancers (DSCs), and this work aims to investigate the causal relationship between COVID-19 infection andDSCs, and the role of inflammatory cytokines (IC).

Methods

This study employs a two-sample mendelian randomization (MR) approach, using COVID-19, ICs, and DSCs single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as instrumental variables to investigate their causal relationship. The primary outcome is assessed using the inverse variance-weighted method. Moreover, mediation analysis was conducted using Two-step method.<

SUBMITTER: Liang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12534643 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature