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BMC Medicine
Published in: BMC Medicine 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research article

Impact of atopy on risk of glioma: a Mendelian randomisation study

Authors: Linden Disney-Hogg, Alex J. Cornish, Amit Sud, Philip J. Law, Ben Kinnersley, Daniel I. Jacobs, Quinn T. Ostrom, Karim Labreche, Jeanette E. Eckel-Passow, Georgina N. Armstrong, Elizabeth B. Claus, Dora Il’yasova, Joellen Schildkraut, Jill S. Barnholtz-Sloan, Sara H. Olson, Jonine L. Bernstein, Rose K. Lai, Minouk J. Schoemaker, Matthias Simon, Per Hoffmann, Markus M. Nöthen, Karl-Heinz Jöckel, Stephen Chanock, Preetha Rajaraman, Christoffer Johansen, Robert B. Jenkins, Beatrice S. Melin, Margaret R. Wrensch, Marc Sanson, Melissa L. Bondy, Richard S. Houlston

Published in: BMC Medicine | Issue 1/2018

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Abstract

Background

An inverse relationship between allergies with glioma risk has been reported in several but not all epidemiological observational studies. We performed an analysis of genetic variants associated with atopy to assess the relationship with glioma risk using Mendelian randomisation (MR), an approach unaffected by biases from temporal variability and reverse causation that might have affected earlier investigations.

Methods

Two-sample MR was undertaken using genome-wide association study data. We used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with atopic dermatitis, asthma and hay fever, IgE levels, and self-reported allergy as instrumental variables. We calculated MR estimates for the odds ratio (OR) for each risk factor with glioma using SNP-glioma estimates from 12,488 cases and 18,169 controls, using inverse-variance weighting (IVW), maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), weighted median estimate (WME) and mode-based estimate (MBE) methods. Violation of MR assumptions due to directional pleiotropy were sought using MR-Egger regression and HEIDI-outlier analysis.

Results

Under IVW, MLE, WME and MBE methods, associations between glioma risk with asthma and hay fever, self-reported allergy and IgE levels were non-significant. An inverse relationship between atopic dermatitis and glioma risk was found by IVW (OR 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93–1.00, P = 0.041) and MLE (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.94–0.99, P = 0.003), but not by WME (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.91–1.01, P = 0.114) or MBE (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.92–1.02, P = 0.194).

Conclusions

Our investigation does not provide strong evidence for relationship between atopy and the risk of developing glioma, but findings do not preclude a small effect in relation to atopic dermatitis. Our analysis also serves to illustrate the value of using several MR methods to derive robust conclusions.
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Metadata
Title
Impact of atopy on risk of glioma: a Mendelian randomisation study
Authors
Linden Disney-Hogg
Alex J. Cornish
Amit Sud
Philip J. Law
Ben Kinnersley
Daniel I. Jacobs
Quinn T. Ostrom
Karim Labreche
Jeanette E. Eckel-Passow
Georgina N. Armstrong
Elizabeth B. Claus
Dora Il’yasova
Joellen Schildkraut
Jill S. Barnholtz-Sloan
Sara H. Olson
Jonine L. Bernstein
Rose K. Lai
Minouk J. Schoemaker
Matthias Simon
Per Hoffmann
Markus M. Nöthen
Karl-Heinz Jöckel
Stephen Chanock
Preetha Rajaraman
Christoffer Johansen
Robert B. Jenkins
Beatrice S. Melin
Margaret R. Wrensch
Marc Sanson
Melissa L. Bondy
Richard S. Houlston
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medicine / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1741-7015
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-018-1027-5

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