Roles of gut microbiome in gastroesophageal reflux disease: A Mendelian randomization study

Abstract Increasing evidence has indicated that the gut microbiota is altered in patients diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), the exact causal connection between them remains unknown. In this research, we conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data. The primary analysis employed the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method. To assess the robustness of our findings, we also conducted additional analyses using the MR-Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode methods. Heterogeneity and pleiotropy were examined through the Cochran's Q test, MR-Egger intercept test, and leave-one-out analysis. The present study evaluated the potential causality of gut microbiota in the risk of GERD and found that 10 bacterial taxa, namely class Bifidobacteriaceae, family Christensenellaceae, family ClostridialesvadinBB60group, genus Anaerostipes, genus ChristensenellaceaeR, genus Coprococcus2, genus LachnospiraceaeUCG004, genus Prevotella9, genus Bifidobacteriales, phylum Actinobacteria, may be suggestively causally associated with the risk of GERD.