ArticleFrontiers in immunology2025
Causality of circulating vitamins on infectious diseases: integrating Mendelian randomization and
Article in Frontiers in immunology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The Modulatory Role of Vitamin D in the Molecular Mechanisms of Sepsis and Infections with Focus on Viral Pathogenesis: A Narrative Review.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
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Abstract
Background: Clinical studies have established an association between infections and circulating vitamin levels. However, the relationship stratified by specific pathogen types remains underexplored. More importantly, the causal direction of this association is still unclear. Methods: We utilized summary-level data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of European ancestry, sourced from the UK Biobank (UKB) and FinnGen consortium. A two-sample, bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was employed to investigate the genetic causal relationships between infectious diseases (categorized as bacterial or viral) and circulating levels of vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), and E. The inverse variance weighted (IVW) method served as the primary analytical approach. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to validate the robustness of the findings. Furthermore, we employed the cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model in mice to assess the impact of sepsis on serum 25(OH)D levels. Results: Genetically predicted higher circulating vitamin E levels were associated with an increased risk of viral infection (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.10-1.88). Conversely, genetic predisposition to bacterial infection was associated with lower circulating 25(OH)D levels (OR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.93-0.99). Conclusion: This study provides evidence for a potential causal link between elevated vitamin E levels and increased susceptibility to viral infection, as well as between bacterial infection and reduced 25(OH)D levels. Furthermore, our
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