COVID-19 hospitalization increases the risk of developing glioblastoma: a bidirectional Mendelian-randomization study

Jiajun Dong; Shengnan Wang; Haoqun Xie; Yanhao Mou; Hao Zhu; Yilong Peng; Jianxin Xi; Minggu Zhong; Zhengyuan Xie; Zongyuan Jiang; Kang Wang; Hongyu Chen; Wenzhuo Yang; Mingqin Zhu; Yufeng Wen; Yi Wu

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1185466

COVID-19 hospitalization increases the risk of developing glioblastoma: a bidirectional Mendelian-randomization study

Front Oncol. 2023 Aug 21:13:1185466. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1185466. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jiajun Dong¹, Shengnan Wang², Haoqun Xie³, Yanhao Mou⁴, Hao Zhu⁵, Yilong Peng¹, Jianxin Xi⁶, Minggu Zhong¹, Zhengyuan Xie¹, Zongyuan Jiang¹, Kang Wang¹, Hongyu Chen³, Wenzhuo Yang³, Mingqin Zhu², Yufeng Wen⁷, Yi Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurosurgery, Jiangmen Central Hospital, Jiangmen, China.
² Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
³ Department of Neurosurgery, Cancer Hospital of Sun Yat sen University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Neurosurgery, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China.
⁵ Department of Hepatology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
⁶ Clinical College, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
⁷ Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, United States.

Abstract

Background: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with glioblastoma (GBM) are considered a highly vulnerable population. Despite this, the extent of the causative relationship between GBM and COVID-19 infection is uncertain.

Methods: Genetic instruments for SARS-CoV-2 infection (38,984 cases and 1,644,784 control individuals), COVID-19 hospitalization (8,316 cases and 1,549,095 control individuals), and COVID-19 severity (4,792 cases and 1,054,664 control individuals) were obtained from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) from European populations. A total of 6,183 GBM cases and 18,169 controls from GWAS were enrolled in our study. Their associations were evaluated by applying Mendelian randomization (MR) including IVW meta-analysis, MR-Egger regression, and weighted-median analysis. To make the conclusions more robust and reliable, sensitivity analyses were performed.

Results: Our results showed that genetically predicted COVID-19 hospitalization increases the risk of GBM (OR = 1.202, 95% CI = 1.035-1.395, p = 0.016). In addition, no increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 hospitalization and severity were observed in patients with any type of genetically predicted GBM.

Conclusion: Our MR study indicated for the first time that genetically predicted COVID-19 hospitalization was demonstrated as a risk factor for the development of GBM.

Keywords: COVID-19; Mendelian randomization; SARS-CoV-2; genome-wide association study; glioblastoma.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Digital Medicine and Additive Manufacturing Engineering Technology Research Center of Jiangmen Engineering Technology Research Center.