Assessing the causal relationship between genetically determined inflammatory biomarkers and low back pain risk: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

BACKGROUND

Observational studies have suggested an association between inflammatory markers and low back pain (LBP), but the causal relationship between these factors remains uncertain.

METHODS

We conducted a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis (MR) study to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between inflammatory markers and low back pain. We obtained genetic data for CRP, along with its upstream inflammatory markers IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10, as well as low back pain from publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We applied several MR methods, including inverse variance weighting, weighted median, MR-Egger, Wald Ratio, and MR-PRESSO, to test for causal relationships. Sensitivity analyses were also conducted to assess the robustness of the results.

RESULTS

Our analyses utilizing the Inverse Variance Weighted (IVW) method, the MR-Egger method, and the weighted median method indicated that IL-6 may be associated with an increased risk of LBP (Effect Size: -0.009, 95% Confidence Interval: -0.013-0.006, p = 9.16e-08); however, in the reverse direction, there was no significant causal effect of LBP on inflammatory markers.

CONCLUSION

Our study used a Mendelian randomization approach and found that elevated IL-6 levels may reduce the risk of LBP.