ArticleThorax2023
Mendelian randomisation of eosinophils and other cell types in relation to lung function and disease.
Article in Thorax, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Integrative mendelian randomization approaches for therapeutic target prioritisation in immune-mediated diseases.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Human blood cell traits and sporadic lymphangioleiomyomatosis: results from mediation joint multi-omics and eQTL Mendelian randomization analysis.Orphanet journal of rare diseases · 2026Article
- Molecular Mechanisms Linking Eosinophils to Lung Function Impairment in Respiratory Diseases.Journal of asthma and allergy · 2026Review
- Integration of biobank-scale genetics and plasma proteomics reveals evidence for causal processes in asthma risk and heterogeneity.Cell genomics · 2025Article
- PM2.5 increases the risk of early-onset COPD mediated by smoking and shared genes: a large-scale genetic analysis.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2025Article
- Plasma Levels of CXCL9 and MCP-3 are Increased in Asthma-COPD Overlap (ACO) Patients.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2025Article
- Relationships between vitamin C intake and COPD assessed by machine learning approaches from the NHANES (2017-2023).Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- A two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis: causal association between chemokines and pan-carcinoma.Frontiers in genetics · 2023Article
- Optimizing inhaled corticosteroid use in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: assessing blood eosinophils, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and mortality outcomes in US adults.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Blood Eosinophil Endotypes across Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).Canadian respiratory journal · 2022Article
- Genome-Wide Association and Mendelian Randomization Analysis Reveal the Causal Relationship Between White Blood Cell Subtypes and Asthma in Africans.Frontiers in genetics · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleEosinophils are associated with airway inflammation in respiratory disease. Eosinophil production and survival is controlled partly by interleukin-5: anti-interleukin-5 agents reduce asthma and response correlates with baseline eosinophil counts. However, whether raised eosinophils are causally related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other respiratory phenotypes is not well understood.
objectivesWe investigated causality between eosinophils and: lung function, acute exacerbations of COPD, asthma-COPD overlap (ACO), moderate-to-severe asthma and respiratory infections.
methodsWe performed Mendelian randomisation (MR) using 151 variants from genome-wide association studies of blood eosinophils in UK Biobank/INTERVAL, and respiratory traits in UK Biobank/SpiroMeta, using methods relying on different assumptions for validity. We performed multivariable analyses using eight cell types where there was possible evidence of causation by eosinophils. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
resultsCausal estimates derived from individual variants were highly heterogeneous, which may arise from pleiotropy. The average effect of raising eosinophils was to increase risk of ACO (weighted median OR per SD eosinophils, 1.44 (95%CI 1.19 to 1.74)), and moderate-severe asthma (weighted median OR 1.50 (95%CI 1.23 to 1.83)), and to reduce forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV
conclusionsBroad consistency across MR methods may suggest causation by eosinophils (although of uncertain magnitude), yet heterogeneity necessitates caution: other important mechanisms may be responsible for the impairment of respiratory health by these eosinophil-raising variants. These results could suggest that anti-IL5 agents (designed to lower eosinophils) may be valuable in treating other respiratory conditions, including people with overlapping features of asthma and COPD.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.