Associations Between Gut Microbiota and Alcohol Abuse: A Mendelian Randomisation and Bioinformatics Study

Abstract

Alcohol abuse, also known as Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), is a substance dependency psychiatric disorder. We aimed to establish a causal relationship between specific gut microbiota and alcohol abuse using Mendelian Randomisation (MR) and bioinformatics methods. We acquired summary data of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for gut microbiota and alcohol abuse from the Mibiogen and Finngen databases, respectively. We conducted MR analyses using various methodologies and mapped the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to genes via the FUMA GWAS platform. We further performed multiple enrichment analyses and a Multi-variable Mendelian Randomisation (MVMR) approach to examine whether gut microbiota influences alcohol abuse by modulating neurotransmitter-related amino acids. The MR analysis revealed an inverse relationship between the genus Eubacterium ventriosum group and the Porphyromonadaceae family with alcohol abuse. Gene enrichment analysis showed that these genes are expressed in brain tissue and are involved in addictive disorders, psychiatric conditions, immunological processes, neurotransmitter synthesis and synaptic regulation. MVMR analysis suggested that the Porphyromonadaceae family as well as genus Eubacterium ventriosum group may suppress alcohol abuse through the metabolism of neurotransmitter-related amino acids, especially Tryptophan. The MR analysis and bioinformatics investigations indicate that the genus Eubacterium ventriosum group and Porphyromonadaceae family confer a protective effect against alcohol abuse, potentially through the modulation of synaptic function.