Abstract
Background:
Late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) represents a growing health burden. Previous studies suggest that blood metabolite levels influence risk of LOAD.
Objective:
We used a genetics-based study design which may overcome limitations of other epidemiological studies to assess the influence of metabolite levels on LOAD risk.
Methods:
We applied Mendelian randomization (MR) to evaluate bi-directional causal effects using summary statistics from the largest genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 249 blood metabolites (n = 115,082) and GWAS of LOAD (ncase = 21,982, ncontrol = 41,944).
Results:
MR analysis of metabolites as exposures revealed a negative association of genetically-predicted glutamine levels with LOAD (Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.73, 0.92) that was consistent in multiple sensitivity analyses. We also identified a positive association of genetically-predicted free cholesterol levels in small LDL (OR = 1.79, 95% CI = 1.36, 2.22) on LOAD. Using genetically-predicted LOAD as the exposure, we identified associations with phospholipids to total lipids ratio in large LDL (OR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.94, 0.98), but not with glutamine, suggesting that the relationship between glutamine and LOAD is unidirectional.
Conclusions:
Our findings support previous evidence that higher circulating levels of glutamine may be a target for protection against LOAD.
Full text
