Clinical and Translational Research
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 6, 2024; 12(16): 2780-2788
Published online Jun 6, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i16.2780
Causal relationships between gut microbiota and dementia: A two-sample, bidirectional, Mendelian randomization study
Zhao-Lin Ren, Hai-Hong Zhou, Chu-Pei Chen, Hao He, Duo-Lao Wang, Zhou Liu
Zhao-Lin Ren, Hai-Hong Zhou, Hao He, Zhou Liu, Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang 524000, Guangdong Province, China
Chu-Pei Chen, Department of Clinical Medicine, Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang 524000, Guangdong Province, China
Duo-Lao Wang, Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L693BX, United Kingdom
Co-corresponding authors: Duo-Lao Wang and Zhou Liu.
Author contributions: Ren ZL designed the study, analyzed and interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript; Zhou HH, Chen CP and He H helped with data analysis and manuscript revision; Liu Z and Wang DL performed critical reading and editing of the manuscript; All authors made contributions to the article and approved the final version for submission.
Supported by Science and Technology Planning Project of Zhanjiang, No. 2021A05071; Clinic and Basic Research Project of Guangdong Medical University, No. 4SG23284G; and The Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, No. LCYJ2018A003.
Institutional review board statement: This study utilized publicly available GWAS summary data and published trial data. This work did not involve the collection of original data, thus precluding the need for ethics committee approval.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: The publicly available GWAS summary data can be accessed through the FinnGen database (https://r10.finngen.fi/) and the IEU OpenGWAS project (https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk/).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhou Liu, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Deputy Director, Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, No. 57 People's Avenue South, Zhanjiang 524000, Guangdong Province, China. liuzhou@gdmu.edu.cn
Received: January 7, 2024
Revised: March 19, 2024
Accepted: April 9, 2024
Published online: June 6, 2024
Processing time: 143 Days and 3.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: We identified several gut microbiota taxa as being associated with the risk of or protection against dementia, including its subtypes. These gut microbiota also exhibited potential as therapeutic targets for the disease. Conversely, reverse Mendelian randomization analysis indicated that dementia or its subtypes also influenced the abundance of several gut bacteria, implying that these taxa may serve as biomarkers for assessing the occurrence and progression of dementia. This study offers novel insights into the mechanisms underlying the role of the gut microbiome in this disorder.