Exploring a Potential Causal Link Between Dietary Intake and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study

Abstract

Background

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), the most prevalent chronic respiratory condition, significantly impairs patients’ quality of life. The pivotal element in disease management lies in prevention, underscoring the paramount importance of employing a scientific approach to investigate early prevention strategies for COPD.

Methods

This study delved into the causal link between 28 dietary intakes and COPD employing two-sample Mendelian randomization. We primarily utilized the Inverse Variance Weighted (IVW) method as the main outcome, complemented by Weighted Median (WM), MR-Egger method, along with several sensitivity analysis techniques, all accompanied by visual representations.

Results

We identified higher odds of COPD following exposure to green beans (OR=1.381, 95% CI=1.119–1.704, P=0.003) and pork intake (OR=2.657, 95% CI=1.203–5.868, P=0.016). In contrast, the odds of developing COPD were lower following exposure to dried fruit (OR=0.481, 95% CI=0.283–0.819, P=0.007), cereal (OR=0.560, 95% CI=0.356–0.880, P=0.012), and whole egg consumption (OR=0.700, 95% CI=0.504–0.972, P=0.033).

Conclusion

In light of our study’s findings, we anticipate that strategically modifying dietary choices may offer an avenue for early COPD prevention in the future.

Keywords:

• Mendelian randomization
• dietary intake
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• causal relationship
• early prevention

Data Sharing Statement

The study utilized publicly available datasets. These statistics can be accessed at IEU Open GWAS Project (https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk/) and FinnGen (https://www.finngen.fi/en).

Ethical Approval

Participants in the FinnGen study gave informed consent for the biospecimen banking study, compliant with the Finnish Biospecimen Banking Act. The study protocol of FinnGen (No. HUS/990/2017) received approval from the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District Coordinating Ethics Committee (HUS). The GWAS data on dietary exposure were obtained from the raw data aggregated by the IEU, originally sourced from the UK Biobank (UKBB). UK Biobank has approval from the North West Multi-centre Research Ethics Committee (MREC) as a Research Tissue Bank (RTB) approval. This approval means that researchers do not require separate ethical clearance and can operate under the RTB approval. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University exempted this study from IRB review and participant informed consent requirements.

Acknowledgment

We express our gratitude to the IEU Open GWAS Project for their invaluable efforts in collecting and archiving the GWAS summary statistics related to dietary intake. We also extend our appreciation to the FinnGen Consortium for generously providing us with the raw data about COPD.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Shanxi Provincial Nature Foundation of China (201901D111355) and NHC Key Laboratory of Pneumoconiosis in Shanxi (2020-PT320-005).