{"title":"Molecular mechanisms of human overgrowth and use of omics in its diagnostics: chances and challenges","authors":"Dirk Prawitt, Thomas Eggermann","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1382371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1382371","url":null,"abstract":"Overgrowth disorders comprise a group of entities with a variable phenotypic spectrum ranging from tall stature to isolated or lateralized overgrowth of body parts and or organs. Depending on the underlying physiological pathway affected by pathogenic genetic alterations, overgrowth syndromes are associated with a broad spectrum of neoplasia predisposition, (cardio) vascular and neurodevelopmental anomalies, and dysmorphisms. Pathologic overgrowth may be of prenatal or postnatal onset. It either results from an increased number of cells (intrinsic cellular hyperplasia), hypertrophy of the normal number of cells, an increase in interstitial spaces, or from a combination of all of these. The underlying molecular causes comprise a growing number of genetic alterations affecting skeletal growth and Growth-relevant signaling cascades as major effectors, and they can affect the whole body or parts of it (mosaicism). Furthermore, epigenetic modifications play a critical role in the manifestation of some overgrowth diseases. The diagnosis of overgrowth syndromes as the prerequisite of a personalized clinical management can be challenging, due to their clinical and molecular heterogeneity. Physicians should consider molecular genetic testing as a first diagnostic step in overgrowth syndromes. In particular, the urgent need for a precise diagnosis in tumor predisposition syndromes has to be taken into account as the basis for an early monitoring and therapy. With the (future) implementation of next-generation sequencing approaches and further omic technologies, clinical diagnoses can not only be verified, but they also confirm the clinical and molecular spectrum of overgrowth disorders, including unexpected findings and identification of atypical cases. However, the limitations of the applied assays have to be considered, for each of the disorders of interest, the spectrum of possible types of genomic variants has to be considered as they might require different methodological strategies. Additionally, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in diagnostic workflows significantly contribute to the phenotype-driven selection and interpretation of molecular and physiological data.","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"83 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141268329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Delesa Damena, Amadou Barry, Robert Morrison, Santara Gaoussou, Almahamoudou Mahamar, Oumar Attaher, Djibrilla Issiaka, Yahia Dicko, Alassane Dicko, Patrick Duffy, Michal Fried
{"title":"A novel locus in CSMD1 gene is associated with increased susceptibility to severe malaria in Malian children","authors":"Delesa Damena, Amadou Barry, Robert Morrison, Santara Gaoussou, Almahamoudou Mahamar, Oumar Attaher, Djibrilla Issiaka, Yahia Dicko, Alassane Dicko, Patrick Duffy, Michal Fried","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1390786","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1390786","url":null,"abstract":"Plasmodium falciparum malaria is still a leading cause of child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. The clinical manifestations of malaria range from asymptomatic infection to severe disease. The variation in clinical presentation is partly attributed to host genetic factors with estimated narrow-sense heritability of 23%. Here, we investigate the associations between candidate gene polymorphisms and the likelihood of severe malaria (SM) in a cohort of Malian children.Based on our previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analysis, candidate genes were selected for in-depth analysis using several criteria including gene-level GWAS scores, functional overlap with malaria pathogenesis, and evidence of association with protection or susceptibility to other infectious or inflammatory diseases. Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) residing within these genes were selected mainly based on p-values from previous severe malaria susceptibility GWAS studies and minor allele frequency (MAF) in West African populations.Of 182 candidate genes reported in our previous study, 11 genes and 22 SNPs residing in these genes were selected. The selected SNPs were genotyped using KASP technology in 477 DNA samples (87 SM and 390 controls). Logistic regression analysis revealed that a common intron variant, rs13340578 in CUB and Sushi Multi Domain (CSMD1) gene, is associated with increased odds of SM in recessive mode of inheritance (MAF = 0.42, OR = 1.8, 95% CI = [1.78, 1.84], p = 0.029). The SNP is in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with multiple variants with regulatory features.Taken together, the current study showed that an intron variant rs13340578, residing in CSMD1 gene, is associated with increased susceptibility to malaria. This finding suggests that modified regulation of complement may contribute to malaria disease severity. Further studies are needed to identify the causal variants and the underlying molecular mechanisms.","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"1 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141100500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Absence of causative genetic association between Helicobacter pylori infection and glaucoma: a bidirectional two-sample mendelian randomization study","authors":"Yan Zhang, Yihong Huang, Yuyu Wu, Jinying Zhang, Wanzhu Chen, Danfeng Xu, Maosheng Guo","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1368915","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1368915","url":null,"abstract":"Background: While clinical research has indicated a potential link between Helicobacter pylori infection and the onset of glaucoma, the causality of this association remains uncertain due to the susceptibility of observational studies to confounding factors and reverse causation.Methods: A comprehensive two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted to assess the causal connection between H. pylori infection and glaucoma. Glaucoma was categorized into primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), normal tension glaucoma (NTG), and pseudo-exfoliation glaucoma (PEG). Various methods, including inverse variance weighted, MR-Egger regression, weighted median, and mode-based estimator, were employed for effect estimation and pleiotropy testing. To enhance result robustness, a sensitivity analysis was performed by excluding proxy single nucleotide polymorphisms.Results: Genetic predisposition for H. pylori infection has no causal effect on glaucoma: (OR 1.00; 95% CI 0.95–1.06, p = 0.980), (OR 0.97; 95% CI 0.86–1.09, p = 0.550), and (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.90–1.08, p = 0.766) with POAG, NTG, and PEG, respectively. An inverse MR showed no causal effect of POAG, NTG, and PEG on H. pylori infection (OR 1.01; 95% CI 0.97–1.05, p = 0.693), (OR 1.00; 95% CI 0.98–1.03, p = 0.804), and (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.96–1.01, p = 0.363), respectively. Heterogeneity (p > 0.05) and pleiotropy (p > 0.05) analysis confirmed the robustness of MR results.Conclusion: These results indicated that there was no genetic evidence for a causal link between H. pylori and glaucoma, suggesting that the eradication or prevention of H. pylori infection might not benefit glaucoma and vice versa.","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"4 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141099357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Y. Palti, R. Vallejo, Maureen K. Purcell, Guangtu Gao, Kristy L. Shewbridge, Roseanna L. Long, Christopher Setzke, B. Fragomeni, Hao Cheng, Kyle E. Martin, Kerry A. Naish
{"title":"Genome-wide association analysis of the resistance to infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus in two rainbow trout aquaculture lines confirms oligogenic architecture with several moderate effect quantitative trait loci","authors":"Y. Palti, R. Vallejo, Maureen K. Purcell, Guangtu Gao, Kristy L. Shewbridge, Roseanna L. Long, Christopher Setzke, B. Fragomeni, Hao Cheng, Kyle E. Martin, Kerry A. Naish","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1394656","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1394656","url":null,"abstract":"Infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN) is a disease of salmonid fish that is caused by the IHN virus (IHNV), which can cause substantial mortality and economic losses in rainbow trout aquaculture and fisheries enhancement hatchery programs. In a previous study on a commercial rainbow trout breeding line that has undergone selection, we found that genetic resistance to IHNV is controlled by the oligogenic inheritance of several moderate and many small effect quantitative trait loci (QTL). Here we used genome wide association analyses in two different commercial aquaculture lines that were naïve to previous exposure to IHNV to determine whether QTL were shared across lines, and to investigate whether there were major effect loci that were still segregating in the naïve lines. A total of 1,859 and 1,768 offspring from two commercial aquaculture strains were phenotyped for resistance to IHNV and genotyped with the rainbow trout Axiom 57K SNP array. Moderate heritability values (0.15–0.25) were estimated. Two statistical methods were used for genome wide association analyses in the two populations. No major QTL were detected despite the naïve status of the two lines. Further, our analyses confirmed an oligogenic architecture for genetic resistance to IHNV in rainbow trout. Overall, 17 QTL with notable effect (≥1.9% of the additive genetic variance) were detected in at least one of the two rainbow trout lines with at least one of the two statistical methods. Five of those QTL were mapped to overlapping or adjacent chromosomal regions in both lines, suggesting that some loci may be shared across commercial lines. Although some of the loci detected in this GWAS merit further investigation to better understand the biological basis of IHNV disease resistance across populations, the overall genetic architecture of IHNV resistance in the two rainbow trout lines suggests that genomic selection may be a more effective strategy for genetic improvement in this trait.","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"14 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141099461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Oumer Sheriff, Abulgasim M. Ahbara, Aynalem Haile, Kefyalew Alemayehu, Jian-Lin Han, Joram M. Mwacharo
{"title":"Whole-genome resequencing reveals genomic variation and dynamics in Ethiopian indigenous goats","authors":"Oumer Sheriff, Abulgasim M. Ahbara, Aynalem Haile, Kefyalew Alemayehu, Jian-Lin Han, Joram M. Mwacharo","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1353026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1353026","url":null,"abstract":"Ethiopia has about 52 million indigenous goats with marked phenotypic variability, which is the outcome of natural and artificial selection. Here, we obtained whole-genome sequence data of three Ethiopian indigenous goat populations (Arab, Fellata, and Oromo) from northwestern Ethiopia and analyzed their genome-wide genetic diversity, population structure, and signatures of selection. We included genotype data from four other Ethiopian goat populations (Abergelle, Keffa, Gumuz, and Woyto-Guji) and goats from Asia; Europe; and eastern, southern, western, and northern Africa to investigate the genetic predisposition of the three Ethiopian populations and performed comparative genomic analysis. Genetic diversity analysis showed that Fellata goats exhibited the lowest heterozygosity values (Ho = 0.288 ± 0.005 and He = 0.334 ± 0.0001). The highest values were observed in Arab goats (Ho = 0.310 ± 0.010 and He = 0.347 ± 4.35e−05). A higher inbreeding coefficient (FROH = 0.137 ± 0.016) was recorded for Fellata goats than the 0.105 ± 0.030 recorded for Arab and the 0.112 ± 0.034 recorded for Oromo goats. This indicates that the Fellata goat population should be prioritized in future conservation activities. The three goat populations showed the majority (∼63%) of runs of homozygosity in the shorter (100–150 Kb) length category, illustrating ancient inbreeding and/or small founder effects. Population relationship and structure analysis separated the Ethiopian indigenous goats into two distinct genetic clusters lacking phylogeographic structure. Arab, Fellata, Oromo, Abergelle, and Keffa represented one genetic cluster. Gumuz and Woyto-Guji formed a separate cluster and shared a common genetic background with the Kenyan Boran goat. Genome-wide selection signature analysis identified nine strongest regions spanning 163 genes influencing adaptation to arid and semi-arid environments (HOXC12, HOXC13, HOXC4, HOXC6, and HOXC9, MAPK8IP2), immune response (IL18, TYK2, ICAM3, ADGRG1, and ADGRG3), and production and reproduction (RARG and DNMT1). Our results provide insights into a thorough understanding of genetic architecture underlying selection signatures in Ethiopian indigenous goats in a semi-arid tropical environment and deliver valuable information for goat genetic improvement, conservation strategy, genome-wide association study, and marker-assisted breeding.","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"5 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141100264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Causal relationship between anti-inflammatory drugs and cancer: a pan-cancer study with Mendelian randomization","authors":"Shen Gao, Guojiang Wei, Qianwang Ma, Xue Wang, Sen Wang, Yuanjie Niu","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1392745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1392745","url":null,"abstract":"Numerous epidemiological studies have elucidated the intricate connection between inflammation and cancer, highlighting how sustained inflammatory responses can fuel carcinogenesis by fostering proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis, while dampening immune responses and sensitivity to chemotherapy. Previous clinical investigations have underscored the potential of anti-inflammatory medications in either preventing or mitigating tumor formation. Here, the causal relationship between anti-inflammatory drugs and cancer was further explored through Mendelian randomization studies.Employing Mendelian randomization, we scrutinized the causal links between three anti-inflammatory drugs—NSAIDs, Aspirin, and Anilide—and 37 types of cancer. We primarily utilized inverse variance weighting (IVW) as the primary analytical approach to delineate the causal association between these drugs and cancer types. Concurrently, sensitivity analyses were conducted to ascertain the absence of horizontal pleiotropy and heterogeneity.Our investigation revealed a discernible causal relationship between certain anti-inflammatory drugs and a subset of cancers, albeit without a pervasive impact across all cancer types. Specifically, NSAIDs exhibited a risk-reducing effect on non-small cell lung cancer (OR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.59–0.97, p-value: 0.03) and gastric cancer (OR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.34–0.98, p-value: 0.04). Conversely, aspirin was associated with an increased risk of oral malignant tumors (OR: 2.18, 95% CI: 1.13–4.21, p-value: 0.02). Notably, no statistically significant findings were observed for anilide drugs (p < 0.05).We identified several cancers with potential causal links to NSAIDs, including non-small cell lung cancer and gastric cancer. Despite our extensive analysis, we did not identify a substantial causal relationship between the use of anti-inflammatory drugs and the development of various cancers.","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"11 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141099626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
E. N. Dreikorn, Christine Munro, Natasha Robin Berman, Amina Kunovac, Daniel Bellissimo, M. Massart
{"title":"Case report: Early use of whole exome sequencing unveils HNRNPU-related neurodevelopmental disorder and answers additional clinical questions through reanalysis","authors":"E. N. Dreikorn, Christine Munro, Natasha Robin Berman, Amina Kunovac, Daniel Bellissimo, M. Massart","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1380552","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1380552","url":null,"abstract":"This case report chronicles the diagnostic odyssey and resolution of a 27-year-old female with a complex neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) using Whole Exome Sequencing (WES). The patient presented to a precision medicine clinic with multiple diagnoses including intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), tics, seizures, and pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS). Although this patient previously had chromosomal microarray and several single-gene tests, the underlying cause of this patient’s symptoms remained elusive. WES revealed a pathogenic missense mutation in the HNRNPU gene, associated with HNRNPU-related neurodevelopmental disorder (HNRNPU-NDD) and developmental and epileptic encephalopathy-54 (DEE54, OMIM: # 617391). Following this diagnoses, other treating clinicians identified additional indications for genetic testing, however, as the WES data was readily available, the clinical team was able to re-analyze the WES data to address their inquiries without requiring additional tests. This emphasizes the pivotal role of WES in expediting diagnoses, reducing costs, and providing ongoing clinical utility throughout a patient’s life. Accessible WES data in primary care settings can enhance patient care by informing future genetic inquiries, enhancing coordination of care, and facilitating precision medicine interventions, thereby mitigating the burden on families and the healthcare system.","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"15 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141106792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bolin Chen, Yuxin Wang, Jinlei Zhang, Y. Han, Hamza Benhammouda, Jun Bian, Ruiming Kang, Xuequn Shang
{"title":"Specific feature recognition on group specific networks (SFR-GSN): a biomarker identification model for cancer stages","authors":"Bolin Chen, Yuxin Wang, Jinlei Zhang, Y. Han, Hamza Benhammouda, Jun Bian, Ruiming Kang, Xuequn Shang","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1407072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1407072","url":null,"abstract":"Accurate identification of cancer stages is challenging due to the complexity and heterogeneity of the disease. Current clinical diagnosis methods primarily rely on phenotypic observations, which may not capture early molecular-level changes accurately.In this study, a novel biomarker recognition method was proposed tailored for cancer stages by considering the change of gene expression relationships. Utilizing the sample-specific information and protein-protein interaction networks, the group specific networks were constructed to address the limited specificity of potential biomarkers. Then, a specific feature recognition method was proposed based on these group specific networks, which employed the random forest algorithm for initial screening followed by a recursive feature elimination process to identify the optimal biomarker subset. During exploring optimal results, a strategy termed the Cost-Benefit Ratio, was devised to facilitate the identification of stage-specific biomarkers.Comparative experiments were conducted on lung adenocarcinoma and breast cancer datasets to validate the method’s efficacy and generalizability. The results showed that the identified biomarkers were highly stage-specific, and the F1 scores for predicting cancer stages were significantly improved. For the lung adenocarcinoma dataset, the F1 score reached 97.68%, and for the breast cancer dataset, it achieved 96.87%. These results significantly surpassed those of three conventional methods in terms of F1 scores. Moreover, from the perspective of biological functions, the biomarkers were proved playing an important role in cancer stage-evolution.The proposed method demonstrated its effectiveness in identifying stage-related biomarkers. By using these biomarkers as features, accurate prediction of cancer stages was achieved. Furthermore, the method exhibited potential for biomarker identification in subtype analyses, offering novel perspectives for cancer prognosis.","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"10 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141105419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial: Innovative translational research to identify colorectal cancer biomarkers for personalized medicine","authors":"Sergi Castellví-Bel, Beatriz Carvalho","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1414214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1414214","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"118 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141105727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhichao Li, Zhihai Teng, Zhenwei Han, Yanping Zhang, Yaxuan Wang
{"title":"Genetically predicted asthma and the risk of abnormal spermatozoa","authors":"Zhichao Li, Zhihai Teng, Zhenwei Han, Yanping Zhang, Yaxuan Wang","doi":"10.3389/fgene.2024.1377770","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2024.1377770","url":null,"abstract":"Several previous animal and human studies have found a strong association between asthma and spermatozoa quality, but whether these associations are causal or due to bias remains to be elucidated.We performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to assess the causal effect of genetically predicted asthma on the risk of abnormal spermatozoa. Asthma, childhood-onset asthma (COA), and adult-onset asthma (AOA) (sample sizes ranging from 327,670 to 408,442) were included as the exposures. Genetic information for abnormal spermatozoa was obtained from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) comprising 209,921 participants. In univariable MR (UVMR) analysis, the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was conducted as the primary method, with the MR Egger and weighted median used as supplementary methods for causal inference. Sensitivity analyses, including the Cochran Q test, Egger intercept test, MR-PRESSO, and leave-one-out analysis, were performed to verify the robustness of the MR results. Multivariable MR (MVMR) was conducted to evaluate the direct causal effects of asthma on abnormal spermatozoa risk.UVMR detected causal associations between genetically predicted asthma and an increased risk of abnormal spermatozoa (OR: 1.270, 95% CI: 1.045–1.545, p = 0.017). Moreover, we found that AOA (OR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.051, 2.018, p = 0.024) has positive causal effects on the risk of abnormal spermatozoa rather than COA (p = 0.558). Sensitivity analysis found little evidence of bias in the current study (p > 0.05). MVMR further confirmed that asthma directly affected the risk of abnormal spermatozoa.Our MR study suggested that genetically predicted asthma could be associated with an increased risk of abnormal spermatozoa, and similar results were obtained in AOA. Further studies are warranted to explain the underlying mechanisms of this association and may provide new avenues for prevention and treatment.","PeriodicalId":510338,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Genetics","volume":"51 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141103220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}