Exploring the impact of dietary factors on intracranial aneurysm risk: insights from Mendelian randomization analysis

While existing research has established a link between dietary habits and the incidence of intracranial aneurysms, the application of Mendelian randomization to explore this association remains largely uncharted. In our study, we analyzed a wide array of dietary factors using data from the IEU Open GWAS project, which included meat varieties, vegetarian foods, cereal and the frequency of alcohol intake. We included pooled intracranial aneurysm GWAS data from a comprehensive dataset of 7,495 cases. In MR analysis, we employed multiple Mendelian randomization techniques such as MR-Egger, Inverse Variance Weighted methods and rigorously controlled the false discovery rates through the Bonferroni correction across 10 dietary exposures. Our analysis identified a significant association between cooked vegetables (OR: 9.939; 95% CI: 2.066 ~ 47.822; <i>p</i> = 0.0042) and an elevated risk of intracranial aneurysms. Besides, the initial analysis suggested a statistically significant association between the dried fruit (OR: 0.385; 95%CI: 0.159 ~ 0.935; <i>p</i> = 0.0350), frequency of alcohol intake (OR: 1.419; 95% CI: 1.039 ~ 1.937; <i>p</i> = 0.0276) and the risk of intracranial aneurysms. However, this significance was not sustained after applying the Bonferroni correction for multiple testing, indicating a need for cautious interpretation despite the initially promising findings. This study identified a clear causal link between cooked vegetable intake and an increased risk of intracranial aneurysm, while suggesting a potential connection between the frequency of alcohol intake and the elevated risk, although this association did not reach statistical significance after multiple testing corrections.

现有研究已证实饮食习惯与颅内动脉瘤发病率之间存在关联，但运用孟德尔随机化（Mendelian randomization, MR）探究这一关联的相关研究仍未得到充分探索。本研究依托IEU开放全基因组关联研究（Genome-Wide Association Study, GWAS）项目的数据，对多种饮食因素展开分析，涵盖肉类品类、素食食品、谷物及饮酒频率。本研究纳入了包含7495例病例的汇总颅内动脉瘤GWAS数据集。在孟德尔随机化分析中，我们采用了MR-Egger、逆方差加权法（Inverse Variance Weighted）等多种孟德尔随机化分析方法，并针对10种饮食暴露因素通过邦费罗尼校正（Bonferroni correction）严格控制错误发现率。分析结果显示，熟蔬菜摄入与颅内动脉瘤风险升高存在显著关联（比值比（Odds Ratio, OR）: 9.939；95%置信区间（Confidence Interval, CI）: 2.066 ~ 47.822；p=0.0042）。此外，初步分析表明，干果摄入（OR: 0.385；95%CI: 0.159 ~ 0.935；p=0.0350）、饮酒频率（OR: 1.419；95%CI: 1.039 ~ 1.937；p=0.0276）与颅内动脉瘤风险存在统计学意义上的显著关联。然而经多重检验的邦费罗尼校正后，该显著性不再成立，提示尽管初始研究结果颇具前景，但仍需谨慎解读。本研究明确了熟蔬菜摄入与颅内动脉瘤风险升高之间的因果关联，同时提示饮酒频率或与风险升高存在潜在关联，但经多重检验校正后，该关联未达到统计学显著性水平。