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. 2023 Jul 14:13:06027.
doi: 10.7189/jogh.13.06027.

Causal relationship between particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), PM2.5 absorbance, and COVID-19 risk: A two-sample Mendelian randomisation study

Chenxi Liu  1   2 , Jia Peng  1   2 , Yubo Liu  1   2 , Yi Peng  2   3 , Yuanyuan Kuang  1 , Yinzhuang Zhang  4 , Qilin Ma  1   2
Affiliations

Causal relationship between particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), PM2.5 absorbance, and COVID-19 risk: A two-sample Mendelian randomisation study

Chenxi Liu et al. J Glob Health. .

Abstract

Background: Several observational studies reported on the association between particulate matter ≤2.5μm (PM2.5) and its absorbance with coronavirus (COVID-19), but none use Mendelian randomisation (MR). To strengthen the knowledge on causality, we examined the association of PM2.5 and its absorbance with COVID-19 risk using MR.

Methods: We selected genome-wide association study (GWAS) integration data from the UK Biobank and IEU Open GWAS Project for two-sample MR analysis. We used inverse variance weighted (IVW) and its multiple random effects and fixed effects alternatives to generally predict the association of PM2.5 and its absorbance with COVID-19, and six methods (MR Egger, weighted median, simple mode, weighted mode, maximum-likelihood and MR-PRESSO) as complementary analyses.

Results: MR results suggested that PM2.5 absorbance was associated with COVID-19 infection (odds ratio (OR) = 2.64; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.32-5.27, P = 0.006), hospitalisation (OR = 3.52; 95% CI = 1.05-11.75, P = 0.041) and severe respiratory symptoms (OR = 28.74; 95% CI = 4.00-206.32, P = 0.001) in IVW methods. We observed no association between PM2.5 and COVID-19.

Conclusions: We found a potential causal association of PM2.5 absorbance with COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation, and severe respiratory symptoms using MR analysis. Prevention and control of air pollution could help delay and halt the negative progression of COVID-19.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure of interest: The authors completed the ICMJE Disclosure of Interest Form (available upon request from the corresponding author) and disclose no relevant interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study flowchart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The MR results of PM2.5 on the status of COVID-19. Panel A. The association of PM2.5 with COVID-19 infection. Panel B. The association of PM2.5 with COVID-19 hospitalization. Panel C. The association of PM2.5 with COVID-19 with VSR. SNP – single-nucleotide polymorphisms, OR – odds ratio, IVW – the inverse variance weighted method, VSR – very severe respiratory symptoms.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The MR results of PM2.5 absorbance on the status of COVID-19. Panel A. The association of PM2.5 absorbance with COVID-19 infection. Panel B. The association of PM2.5 absorbance with COVID-19 hospitalization. Panel C. The association of PM2.5 absorbance with COVID-19 with VSR. SNP – single-nucleotide polymorphisms, OR – odds ratio, IVW – the inverse variance weighted metho, VSR – very severe respiratory symptoms.
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