Photo Credit: Artur Plawgo

The following is a summary of “Causal association between Helicobacter pylori infection and Sjogren’s syndrome: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis,” published in the August 2024 issue of Infectious Disease by Cui et al.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study using Mendelian randomization (MR) to assess the relationship between Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and Sjogren’s syndrome (SS).

They analyzed genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics for H. pylori infection [sample size=8735 (EBI, https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk/)] and SS [sample size=368,028 (cases=2495, controls=365,533) (FinnGen, https://r9.finngen.fi/)]. Bidirectional MR was employed to assess the relationship between H. pylori infection and SS and to identify causation. The primary MR analysis method used was inverse-variance weighted (IVW) MR, with additional methods including MR‒Egger and weighted median approaches. Furthermore, the stability and reliability of the results were evaluated through the retention method, heterogeneity testing, and horizontal gene pleiotropy assessment.

The results showed evidence of H. pylori infection affecting SS risk in the IVW analysis [OR=1.6705; 95% CI =1.0966 to 2.5446; P=0.0168]. The study also revealed SS impacting H. pylori infection risk (OR=1.0158; 95% CI=1.0033 to 1.0285; P=0.0128).

Investigators concluded that MR analysis supported a relationship between H. pylori infection and SS, with SS increasing the risk of H. pylori infection, suggesting potential implications for novel therapeutic approaches targeting both conditions.

Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-024-09678-2