Genetic association of circulating C-reactive protein levels with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND: Several observational studies have found that idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is often accompanied by elevated circulating C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. However, the causal relationship between them remains to be determined. Therefore, our study aimed to explore the causal effect of circulating CRP levels on IPF risk by the two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. METHODS: We analyzed the data from two genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of European ancestry, including circulating CRP levels (204,402 individuals) and IPF (1028 cases and 196,986 controls). We primarily used inverse variance weighted (IVW) to assess the causal effect of circulating CRP levels on IPF risk. MR-Egger regression and MR-PRESSO global test were used to determine pleiotropy. Heterogeneity was examined with Cochran's Q test. The leave-one-out analysis tested the robustness of the results. RESULTS: We obtained 54 SNPs as instrumental variables (IVs) for circulating CRP levels, and these IVs had no significant horizontal pleiotropy, heterogeneity, or bias. MR analysis revealed a causal effect between elevated circulating CRP levels and increased risk of IPF (OR(IVW) = 1.446, 95% CI 1.128–1.854, P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: The present study indicated that elevated circulating CRP levels could increase the risk of developing IPF in people of European ancestry. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12931-022-02309-x.