Publication date: Mar 24, 2025
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted global health, making it essential to understand its genetic effects on various traits. Leveraging the extensive FinnGen dataset comprising 500 000 individuals, we performed a Mendelian randomization (MR) phenome-wide association study. COVID-19-related phenotypes obtained from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative GWAS (release 7). We employed four distinct approaches, including MR-Egger, weighted median, random-effect inverse variance weighted (IVW), and weighted mode, to conduct the MR analysis. Two hundred fifty-five potential causal effects of COVID-19 were observed for a diverse range of outcomes using the IVW method, including cardiovascular disorders, respiratory conditions, autoimmune diseases, and metabolic disorders. Apart from a few that can be classified as “other traits,” the majority of the traits are disease-related traits. We have also identified 31 traits, wherein all four distinct MR analyses yielded a P-value of less than 0. 05. Only one trait remained statistically significant after multiple testing correction using the conservative Bonferroni threshold (P
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Genetic | COVID-19 |
| Global | effect |
| Mendelian | Mendelian randomization |
| Pandemic | phenome wide |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| disease | IDO | host |
| pathway | REACTOME | Release |
| disease | MESH | autoimmune diseases |
| disease | MESH | Long Covid |