Potential causal association between aspirin use and erectile dysfunction in European population: a Mendelian randomization study

Abstract

BackgroundAspirin, as one of the most commonly used drugs, possesses a broad spectrum of therapeutic applications. Presently, the potential association between aspirin usage and the risk elevation of erectile dysfunction (ED) remains inconclusive. The objective of this study employing two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) was to clarify the causal impact of aspirin use on the risk of ED.MethodsThis study incorporated two sets of Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) summary statistics, one for aspirin use (46,946 cases and 286,635 controls) and another for ED (6,175 cases and 217,630 controls) in individuals of European ancestry. The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method was employed as the primary approach, supplemented by MR-Egger, weighted median, weighted mode, and simple mode to estimate the causal effect of aspirin usage on the risk of ED development. To assess pleiotropy, the MR-PRESSO global test and MR-Egger regression were used. Cochran’s Q test was adopted to check heterogeneity, and the leave-one-out analysis was performed to confirm the robustness and reliability of the results.ResultsThe causal association between genetically inferred aspirin use and ED was found by using inverse variance weighted (OR = 20.896, 95% confidence interval = 2.077-2.102E+2, P = 0.010). The sensitivity analysis showed that no pleiotropy and heterogeneity was observed. Furthermore, the leave-one-out analysis demonstrated that the findings were not significantly affected by any instrumental variables.ConclusionThe results of this study highlighted the significance of aspirin use as a predisposing factor for ED and provided further evidence supporting the causal association between aspirin utilization and ED within European populations.

Antidiabetic drug administration prevents bone mineral density loss: Evidence from a two-sample Mendelian randomization study

“…This criterion ensured that the chosen SNPs had a substantial and credible connection to the antidiabetic medications under investigation. Subsequently, we implemented a strategy to eliminate SNPs that were in high linkage disequilibrium (LD) with one another, utilizing criteria based on a threshold of r 2 = 0.001 and kb = 5000 [ 14 , 15 ]. This step helped to ensure the independence of our instrumental variables and mitigate potential bias introduced by correlated SNPs.…”

“…Furthermore, we scrutinized the presence of pleiotropy, a phenomenon where a genetic variant may influence multiple traits, by employing two distinct tests: the MR–Egger intercept test and MR-PRESSO. The MR–Egger intercept test provided insight into the presence of directional pleiotropy, while MR-PRESSO offered a means to detect and mitigate the influence of outliers and pleiotropic SNPs [ 14 ].…”

Assessing the role of statin therapy in bladder cancer: evidence from a Mendelian Randomization study

“…Finally, to ensure the consistency of effect alleles between the exposure and outcome datasets, harmonization was carried out to exclude palindromic and ambiguous SNPs with non-matching alleles. Additionally, to robustly adhere to the first key assumption, the F-statistic for each SNP was calculated individually; SNPs with F statistics < 10 were deemed weak IVs and excluded from further analysis ( Burgess et al, 2011 ; Li et al, 2023 ; 2024 ). Following these stringent filters, the selected SNPs were utilized as the definitive IVs for the ensuing two-sample MR study.…”