Investigating Potential Causal Relationships Between Plasma Protein Ratios and Alopecia Areata: A Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Study

This study investigated the causal relationships between plasma protein ratios (PPRs) and alopecia areata (AA) using data from over 54,000 individuals in the UK Biobank and 862 AA cases from FinnGen. The analysis identified that increased ratios of agrin/heparan sulfate proteoglycan 2 (AGRN/HSPG2) and 2,4-dienoyl-CoA reductase 1/FK506-binding protein 1B (DECR1/FKBP1B) are significantly associated with a higher risk of AA, with odds ratios of 1.448 and 1.658, respectively. Reverse Mendelian randomization analysis showed no significant causal effects of AA on these PPRs. The findings suggest these PPRs could be important in understanding and managing AA.