Investigating the causal relationship between human blood/urine metabolites and periodontal disease using two‐sample Mendelian randomization

Abstract

AbstractBackground and AimsThe aim is to investigate the cause‐and‐effect connection between metabolites found in blood/urine and the likelihood of developing periodontal disease (PD) through the utilization of a two‐sample Mendelian randomization (MR) method.MethodsUsing an inverse variance weighted (IVW) method and two additional two‐sample MR models, we examined the relationship between blood/urine metabolites and PD by analyzing data from a comprehensive metabolome‐based genome‐wide association study and the Genome‐Wide Association Studies (GWAS) of PD. To assess the consistency and dependability of the findings, diversity, cross‐effects, and sensitivity analyses were conducted.ResultsOut of the 35 metabolites found in blood and urine, a total of eight metabolites (C‐reactive protein, Potassium in urine, Urea, Cystatin C, Non‐albumin protein, Creatinine, estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate, and Phosphate) displayed a possible causal connection with the risk of dental caries/PD using the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method (p < 0.05). This includes five metabolites in the blood and three in the urine. No metabolites were statistically significant in IVW MR models (p < 3.68 × 10−4). Even after conducting sensitivity analysis with the leave‐one‐out method and removing the confounding instrumental variables, the impact of these factors on dental caries/PD remained significant.ConclusionBased on the available evidence, it is not possible to establish a significant causal link between the 35 blood metabolites and the likelihood of developing dental caries and PD.