Abstract
Background: Cytokines have been implicated in the initiation of human complex diseases, and the causality between cytokines and human phenotypes has not been systematically explored.Methods: Bidirectional mendelian randomization (MR) and multivariate mendelian randomization (MVMR) with Bayesian model averaging (MR-BMA) were performed to explore the causality of 41 cytokines and 83 human phenotypes.Results: Inverse variance weighted (IVW) MR showed that MIG, SCGFb, SCF, and MIF had causal effects on ovarian, colon, breast cancer, and their subtypes. Similarly, MCP1, TRAIL, and SCGFb had causal effects on heart failure (HF), stroke and its subtypes, coronary heart disease (CHD), and myocardial infarction (MI). About neurological diseases: MIP1b had positively causal effects on Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), and MIG increased the risk of AD. MR-BMA showed that MIP1b was the top priority risk factor for AD and PD; MCP1 was the top risk factor for HF, stroke, and gout; SCF was the top risk factor for ovarian cancer; PDGFbb and SCGFb were the top risk factor for ischemic stroke (IS) (cardioembolic) and type 1 diabetes, respectively. The results of bidirectional MR showed endocrine diseases and autoimmune diseases influenced the circulating levels of cytokines.Conclusions: Our findings showed that cytokines have extensive causal effects on human complex diseases. Chemokines (MCP1, MIP1b) and growth factors (PDGFbb, SCGFb, SCF) could be recommended as valuable biomarkers of chronic diseases.