Introduction: Recent cross-sectional research has demonstrated a substantial link between tuberculosis (TB) and gut microbiota. Nevertheless, the causal impact of the gut microbiota on TB susceptibility in humans remains unknown.
Methods: The Mendelian randomization (MR) method was utilized for investigating the causality between them. The main method used for MR analysis was the inverse variance weighted (IVW) test, with the MR-Egger, weighted median, weighted mode, and simple median methods serving as supplements. And several sensitivity tests were carried out to validate the MR findings.
Results: The IVW outcomes suggested that three bacterial traits exhibited associations with susceptibility to respiratory TB after Bonferroni correction, namely Lachnospiraceae UCG010 (odds ratio [OR] 1.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.17-2.55, P = 0.005), Eubacterium (brachy group) (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.07-1.65, P = 0.009), and Ruminococcaceae UCG005 (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.52-0.98, P = 0.034). Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that horizontal pleiotropy and heterogeneity were absent, thereby guaranteeing the reliability of the results.
Conclusion: This research sheds light on the causal impact of gut microbiota on respiratory tuberculosis susceptibility, improving our knowledge of therapeutic strategies for managing TB.
Keywords: Causal effects; Gut microbiome; Gut microbiota; Mendelian randomization study; Tuberculosis.
© 2023. The Author(s).