Causal Relationships Between Immune Cells and Risk of Gastric Cancer: A Mendelian Randomization Study

• Published in: Zhongliu fangzhi yanjiu Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 172 - 176
• Main Authors: He, Jiawei, Cao, Longnyu, Tang, Mengyuan, Cui, Hongquan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese; English
• Published: Tianjin China Anti-Cancer Association 01.02.2025; Magazine House of Cancer Research on Prevention and Treatment
• Subjects: Cancer; causal effects; CD14 antigen; CD16 antigen; CD4 antigen; CD8 antigen; Gastric cancer; Genetic diversity; Genetic variance; immune cells; Immune system; Immunoglobulin D; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes B; Lymphocytes T; mendelian randomization; Phenotypes; Randomization; Risk; Sensitivity analysis; Tumor microenvironment; Weighting methods
• ISSN: 1000-8578
• DOI: 10.3971/j.issn.1000-8578.2025.24.0438

Objective　To analyze the causal relationship between immune cell phenotype and gastric cancer. Methods　Bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was used to select 731 genetic variants involving immune cell phenotypes from the GWAS dataset as instrumental variables. Inversevariance weighting method (IVW), weighted median method (WM), and MR-Egger regression were used for sensitivity analysis. Cochran Q test, MR-Egger regression, MR-PRESSO method, and remain-one method were also conducted. Results　Changes in the absolute count of IgD+ B cells and CD14-CD16- cells were significantly associated with the risk of gastric cancer. A lower proportion of IgD+ B cells was associated with a lower risk of gastric cancer (OR=0.86, 95%CI: 0.79-0.94), while an increased number of CD4-CD8-T cells was associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer (OR=1.2, 95%CI: 1.1-1.3). Conclusion　A causal relationship exists between immune cell phenotype and the risk of gastric cancer. Changes in specific immune markers may regulate the development of gastric cancer by affecting the tumor microenvironment.