ReviewFrontiers in medicine2022
Causal association of epigenetic aging and COVID-19 severity and susceptibility: A bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.
Review in Frontiers in medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Infection and telomere length: A systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Bidirectional causal associations between Sjögren syndrome and gastrointestinal disorders: A two-sample Mendelian randomization study.Medicine · 2026Article
- Telomere Length and COVID-19 Severity: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study Across the Clinical Spectrum.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The COVID-19 legacy: consequences for the human DNA methylome and therapeutic perspectives.GeroScience · 2025Review
- Immuno-epigenetic paradigms in coronavirus infection.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Application of Mendelian randomization to explore the genetic association between drinking habits of different beverages and sleep disorder.Archives of medical science : AMS · 2025Article
- Exploring the Relationship between Telomere Length and Cognitive Changes in Post-COVID-19 Subjects.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Causal Association of Telomere Length and Loss of Bone: a Directional Mendelian Randomization Study of Multi-Outcomes.Applied biochemistry and biotechnology · 2024Article
- Association between retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and psychiatric disorders: a mendelian randomization study.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Causal relationships of infection withHeliyon · 2024Article
- Article
- Plasma Proteins Associated with COVID-19 Severity in Puerto Rico.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- The impact of COVID-19 on "biological aging".Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- The causal effects of intelligence and fluid intelligence on Parkinson's disease: a Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2024Article
- Epigenetic age acceleration in surviving versus deceased COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome following hospitalization.Clinical epigenetics · 2023Article
- SARS-CoV-2 and the DNA damage response.The Journal of general virology · 2023Review
- Causality between heart failure and epigenetic age: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.ESC heart failure · 2023Article
- Causal associations between type 1 diabetes and COVID-19 infection and prognosis: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.BMJ open diabetes research & care · 2023Article
- Enzymatic approaches against SARS-CoV-2 infection with an emphasis on the telomere-associated enzymes.Biotechnology letters · 2023Review
- Risk relationship between leukocyte telomere length and constipation: a Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Observational data from China, the United States, France, and Italy suggest that chronological age is an adverse COVID-19 outcome risk factor, with older patients having a higher severity and mortality rate than younger patients. Most studies have gotten the same view. However, the role of aging in COVID-19 adverse effects is unclear. To more accurately assess the effect of aging on adverse COVID-19, we conducted this bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study. Epigenetic clocks and telomere length were used as biological indicators of aging. Data on epigenetic age (PhenoAge, GrimAge, Intrinsic HorvathAge, and HannumAge) were derived from an analysis of biological aging based on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data. The telomere length data are derived from GWAS and the susceptibility and severity data are derived from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (HGI). Firstly, epigenetic age and telomere length were used as exposures, and following a screen for appropriate instrumental variables, we used random-effects inverse variance weighting (IVW) for the main analysis, and combined it with other analysis methods (e.g., MR Egger, Weighted median, simple mode, Weighted mode) and multiple sensitivity analysis (heterogeneity analysis, horizontal multiplicity analysis, "leave-one-out" analysis). For reducing false-positive rates, Bonferroni corrected significance thresholds were used. A reverse Mendelian randomization analysis was subsequently performed with COVID-19 susceptibility and severity as the exposure. The results of the MR analysis showed no significant differences in susceptibility to aging and COVID-19. It might suggest that aging is not a risk factor for COVID-19 infection (
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