Causality of the gut microbiome and atherosclerosis-related lipids: a bidirectional Mendelian Randomization study

Abstract

Aims Recent studies have indicated an association between intestinal flora and lipids. However, observational studies cannot indicate causality. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potentially causal relationships between the intestinal flora and blood lipids. Methods We performed a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) analysis to investigate the causal relationship between intestinal flora and blood lipids. Summary statistics of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for the 211 intestinal flora and blood lipid traits (n = 5) were obtained from public datasets. Five recognized MR methods were applied to assess the causal relationship with lipids, among which, the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) regression was used as the primary MR method. A series of sensitivity analyses were performed to test the robustness of the causal estimates. Results The results indicated a potential causal association between 19 intestinal flora and dyslipidemia in humans. Genus Ruminococcaceae, Christensenellaceae, Parasutterella, Terrisporobacter, Parabacteroides, Class Erysipelotrichia, Family Erysipelotrichaceae, and order Erysipelotrichales were associated with higher dyslipidemia, whereas genus Oscillospira, Peptococcus, Ruminococcaceae UCG010, Ruminococcaceae UCG011, Dorea, and Family Desulfovibrionaceae were associated with lower dyslipidemia. After using the Bonferroni method for multiple testing correction, Only Desulfovibrionaceae [Estimate = -0.0418, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9362–0.9826, P = 0.0007] exhibited stable and significant negative associations with ApoB levels. The inverse MR analysis did not find a significant causal effect of lipids on the intestinal flora. Additionally, no significant heterogeneity or horizontal pleiotropy for IVs was observed in the analysis. Conclusion The study suggested a causal relationship between intestinal flora and dyslipidemia. These findings will provide a meaningful reference to discover dyslipidemia for intervention to address the problems in the clinic.

Effects of salidroside on atherosclerosis: potential contribution of gut microbiota

“…Mendelian randomization studies in two samples suggested that complex networks may exist among gut microbes, and interactions between bacteria, viruses, and fungi jointly influence the occurrence and progression of atherosclerosis ( Jiang et al, 2024 ). Desulfovibrioceae showed a stable and significant negative correlation with ApoB levels ( Teng et al, 2024 ), which was associated with increased TG levels ( Takeda et al, 2023 ). The traditional Chinese herbal prescription ( Yu et al, 2024 ), serum sex hormones ( Peters et al, 2023 ), and structure of the gut virome ( Li et al, 2024c ) play an important role in slowing down the progression of atherosclerosis by regulating altered intestinal microbiota and perturbed metabolites.…”