Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (May 2024)

Causal association between obstructive sleep apnea and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a Mendelian randomization study

  • Rongrong Du,
  • Rongrong Du,
  • Yahui Zhu,
  • Yahui Zhu,
  • Peng Chen,
  • Peng Chen,
  • Mao Li,
  • Ying Zhang,
  • Ying Zhang,
  • Xusheng Huang,
  • Xusheng Huang,
  • Xusheng Huang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2024.1357070
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16

Abstract

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BackgroundObstructive sleep apnea (OSA) had a high prevalence in the population. Whether OSA increases the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is unknown. Our aim was to clarify this issue using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis in a large cohort.MethodsTwo-sample MR was used to evaluate the potential causality between OSA and ALS by selecting single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as instrumental variables (IVs) from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method was chosen as the primary method to estimate causal association. Weighted median, weighted mode and simple mode methods were used as sensitivity analyses to ensure the robustness of the results.ResultsIn MR analysis, IVW mode showed genetic liability to OSA was found to be significantly associated with a higher ALS risk (OR, 1.220; 95% confidence interval, 1.031–1.443; p = 0.021). No evidence of heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy were suggested.ConclusionWe found potential evidence for a causal effect of OSA on an increased risk of ALS.

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