Circulating Inflammatory Proteins and Age-related Macular Degeneration: New Insights from Mendelian Randomization.

Abstract

Background: Inflammation is a key mechanism underlying age-related macular degeneration (AMD); however, the specific circulating inflammatory proteins involved remain unclear. This study investigated the causal relationship between 91 circulating inflammatory proteins and AMD using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach.

Methods: We conducted a two-sample magnetic resonance imaging MR analysis using genomewide association study (GWAS) data. Five MR methodologies were applied, with inverse variance weighting (IVW) as the primary approach. We applied false discovery rate (FDR) correction to mitigate false positives. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess horizontal pleiotropy and heterogeneity. Additionally, Steiger's test, reverse MR analysis, and linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) were used to validate the results.

Results: Five inflammatory proteins demonstrated significant associations with overall AMD, including three associated with wet AMD and one associated with dry AMD. LDSC analysis indicated that, except for fibroblast growth factor-19, no genetic correlation confounded the causal relationships. Additionally, the expression of the identified proteins was unaffected by the genetic prediction of AMD.

Conclusion: This study highlights the causal relationship between specific inflammatory proteins and AMD, emphasizing their potential roles in AMD pathogenesis and potential therapeutic targets.