Gut microbiota and radiculopathy: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study

Abstract

Abstract BackgroundPrevious studies have suggested a potential link between the gut microbiome and radiculopathy, but the causal relationship remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the causal effect of gut microbiome on radiculopathy using Mendelian randomization (MR) approach and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with gut microbiome as instrumental variables Methods Summary data from genome-wide association studies of gut microbiota (the MiBioGen) and radiculopathy (the FinnGen biobank) were acquired. The inverse variance weighting (IVW) was chosen as the main MR Analysis method. The weighted median, MR-Egger regression, weighted model, and simple model were provided as additional supplements. Mendelian randomization pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) and MR-Egger regression were performed to evaluate the horizontal pleiotropy and to eliminate outlier single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Cochran’s Q-test was applied for heterogeneity detection. Results We identified eight gut microbial taxa that were causally associated with radiculopathy (P<0.05). The Cochrane Q test produced results that did not indicate heterogeneity (P>0.05), indicating a lack of statistical significance. Furthermore, both the MR-Egger intercept test and the MR-PRESSO global test indicated that our findings were not influenced by horizontal pleiotropy (P>0.05), further supporting the reliability of our results. In the reverse analysis, no evidence was found to suggest that radiculopathy has an impact on the gut microbiota. ConclusionWe identified four gut microbiota that were protective against radiculopathy and four that may elevate the risk of the condition. Our findings confirmed a potential causal link between gut microbiota and radiculopathy, thereby providing a theoretical foundation for the development of targeted prevention strategies. Keywords