The impact of plasma vitamin C levels on the risk of cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer's disease: A Mendelian randomization study.
Clin Nutr
; 40(10): 5327-5334, 2021 10.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34537655
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND & AIMS:
Previous observational studies have reported associations between plasma vitamin C levels, and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, no conclusive results have been obtained. We conducted a Mendelian randomization (MR) study to investigate the causality of vitamin C on the risk of nine CVDs [including coronary artery disease (CAD), myocardial infarction (MI), atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure (HF), stroke, ischemic stroke (IS), and IS subtypes] and Alzheimer's disease.METHODS:
Eleven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified in a recent genome-wide meta-analysis (N = 52,018) were used as the instrumental variables for plasma vitamin C levels. The summary-level data for CVDs and AD were extracted from consortia and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We performed MR analyses using the fixed-effects inverse-variance-weighted (IVW) method, weighted median, and MR-Egger approaches.RESULTS:
This MR study found suggestive evidence that genetic liability to higher vitamin C levels was associated with a lower risk of cardioembolic stroke [odds ratio (OR, presented per 1 standard deviation increase in plasma vitamin C levels) = 0.773; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.623-0.959; P = 0.020] and AD (OR = 0.968; 95% CI, 0.946-0.991; P = 0.007) using the fixed-effects IVW method. Sensitivity analysis yielded directionally similar results. A null-association was observed between vitamin C and the other CVDs.CONCLUSION:
Our MR study provided suggestive evidence that higher vitamin C levels were casually associated with a decreased risk of cardioembolic stroke and AD. No evidence was observed to suggest that vitamin C affected the risk of CAD, MI, AF, HF, stroke, IS, large artery stroke, or small vessel stroke. However, well-designed studies are warranted to confirm these results and determine the underlying mechanisms of the causal links.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Ascorbic Acid
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Cardiovascular Diseases
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Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
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Mendelian Randomization Analysis
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Alzheimer Disease
Type of study:
Clinical_trials
/
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Systematic_reviews
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Clin Nutr
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article