Bidirectional Causality Between Psoriasis and Gut Microbiota

According to a study published in Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, there is a possible bidirectional causal influence of psoriasis on the gut microbiota.

Researchers aimed to investigate the bidirectional causal relationship between gut microbiota and psoriasis using Mendelian randomization (MR). Traditional observational studies suggested a potential association between gut microbiota and psoriasis, but evidence regarding the reciprocal relationship was lacking.

The researchers utilized the largest available gut microbiota genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from the MiBioGen consortium and psoriasis GWAS data from the FinnGen consortium. They performed two-sample bidirectional MR analyses using a multiple MR analysis approach and conducted sensitivity analyses to assess the robustness of the results.

The results revealed a bidirectional causal influence between psoriasis and gut microbiota. Specifically, 5 bacterial genera were found to be causally related to psoriasis, whereas psoriasis was causally related to 4 bacterial genera. Interestingly, the bacterial genera identified in this study differed from those observed in previous observational studies. Furthermore, the bacterial genera associated with psoriasis in this study were inversely related to the condition.

“We found that the specific bacterial genera with a risk effect on psoriasis were different from those found to characterize psoriasis in previous observational studies, and that these psoriasis-characterizing genera were inversely associated with psoriasis,” concluded the authors.

Reference
Gao Q, Liu JH, Ma WY, Cheng ZL, Hao PS, Luo NN. Genomics-microbiome based assessment of bidirectional causality between gut microbiota and psoriasis. Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. Published online February 13, 2024. doi:10.2147/CCID.S450227