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Association between serum uric acid and prostate cancer risk in East Asian populations: a Mendelian randomization study

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Abstract

Purpose

Previous observational studies showed that serum uric acid (SUA) was associated with prostate cancer, but the causal relationship is unclear. This study aimed to explore the potential causal association between SUA and prostate cancer risk using Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses in the East Asian populations.

Methods

Publicly available summary-level genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data on SUA were obtained from a genome-wide meta-analysis of three Japanese cohorts (121,745 subjects). The GWAS data on prostate cancer were derived from Biobank Japan (109,347 subjects with 5,408 cases and 103,939 controls). A total of 34 SUA-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (P value < 5 × 10–8) were identified as instrumental variables. The inverse variance weighted method was used as the primary method to compute the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for per standard deviation increase in SUA. MR Egger, weighted median, and weighted mode were also applied to test the robustness of the results.

Results

Genetically predicted SUA was positively associated with prostate cancer risk using inverse variance weighted (OR = 1.12; 95% CI 1.00–1.26; P = 0.043). The positive association was robust when MR Egger (OR = 1.16; 95% CI 1.01–1.34; P = 0.048), weighted median (OR = 1.18; 95% CI 1.03–1.36; P = 0.018), and weighted mode (OR = 1.14; 95% CI 1.01–1.29; P = 0.041) were used.

Conclusion

There were potential causal associations between higher genetically predicted SUA levels and increased prostate cancer risk. Further, MR studies with more valid SNPs and more cancer cases are needed. Validation of the findings is also recommended.

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Data availability

All data used in this study are publicly available without any access restrictions. One can also contact the corresponding author if they would like to assess them.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the Japan Multi-institutional Collaborative Cohort (J-MICC), the Kita-Nagoya Genomic Epidemiology (KING), and the BioBank Japan (BBJ) for providing publicly available summary-level genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data on serum uric acid. We also want to thank the BBJ for the publicly available summary-level GWAS data on prostate cancer, body mass index, smoking, total cholesterol, low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride, diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, congestive heart failure, and type 2 diabetes.

Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, 999077, China

    Yunyang Deng, Junjie Huang & Martin Chi Sang Wong

  2. School of Public Health, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100000, China

    Martin Chi Sang Wong

  3. School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100000, China

    Martin Chi Sang Wong

Authors
  1. Yunyang Deng
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  2. Junjie Huang
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Contributions

YYD conceived and designed this study. YYD conducted the data acquisition, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript. JJH proofread the data and manuscript. MCSW critically revised the manuscript. All authors approved the submitted version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Chi Sang Wong.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethical approval

All related studies used in this study were approved by appropriate ethics review boards. Written informed consents were obtained from all participants. This study did not exceed the scope of the original ethics committee approval.

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Deng, Y., Huang, J. & Wong, M.C.S. Association between serum uric acid and prostate cancer risk in East Asian populations: a Mendelian randomization study. Eur J Nutr 62, 1323–1329 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-022-03076-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-022-03076-7

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