Mendelian randomization study of the causal relationship between autoimmune diseases and anemia using proteomic and genetic data

Abstract Background: Observational studies have suggested a potential association between autoimmune diseases and anemia, but the direction of causality remains unclear. To investigate the potential causal relationship between autoimmune diseases and anemia using Mendelian randomization (MR). Methods: We conducted a bidirectional two-sample MR study using summary-level genetic data from the EBI and FinnGen databases. We examined 21 autoimmune diseases as exposures and anemia as the outcome, and vice versa. Multivariable MR, meta-analysis, and two-step mediation analysis involving 43 candidate mediators