Causal effects of gut microbiome on autoimmune liver disease: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have indicated a potential link between the gut microbiome and autoimmune liver disease (AILD) such as autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). The relationship between the gut microbiome and autoimmune liver disease is still uncertain due to confounding variables. In our study, we aim to shed light on this relationship by employing a two-sample Mendelian randomization approach. METHODS: We conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study using the R package "TwoSampleMR". The exposure data consisted of genetic variants associated with 194 bacterial traits obtained from the MiBioGen consortium. Summary statistics for AILD were obtained from the GWAS Catalog website. Furthermore, a series of sensitivity analyses were performed to validate the initial MR results. RESULTS: There were two, four and three bacteria traits associated with an increased risk of AIH. PBC, and PSC respectively. In contrast, there were five, two and five bacteria traits associated with a decreased risk for AIH, PBC and PSC. Notably, the genus_Clostridium_innocuum_group showed a negative association with AIH (OR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.49–0.93), and the genus_Actinomyces was found to be genetically associated with a decreased risk of PSC (OR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.42–0.90). CONCLUSIONS: Our study identified the causal impact of specific bacterial features on the risk of AILD subtypes. Particularly, the genus_Clostridium_innocuum_group and the genus_Actinomyces demonstrated significant protective effects against AIH and PSC respectively. These findings provide further support for the potential use of targeted probiotics in the management of AILD. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12920-023-01670-0.