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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Thyroid Endocrinology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1419346
This article is part of the Research Topic The Association of Other Autoimmune Diseases in Patients with Thyroid Autoimmunity: Volume II View all 16 articles

Causal relationship between antihypertensive drugs and Hashimoto's thyroiditis: A drug-target Mendelian randomization study

Provisionally accepted
Cui Bing Cui Bing a q. chen a q. chen cheng c. xu cheng c. xu *chao m. mao chao m. mao yue h. chen yue h. chen
  • Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Recent studies have indicated a potential association of hypertension with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and other autoimmune diseases, yet the impact of antihypertensive drugs on HT risk is not well understood.We employed a drug-target Mendelian randomization approach to investigate the prolonged impact of 9 classes of antihypertensive medications on HT susceptibility in European and Asian populations. Genetic variants close to or within genes associated with the drug targets and systolic blood pressure (SBP) were utilized to mimic the effects of antihypertensive medications. We focused on drugs linked to a lower risk of coronary artery disease for our main analysis. We gathered genetic data on SBP and HT risk from comprehensive genome-wide association studies available for European and Asian groups. For a supplementary analysis, we used expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) related to drug target genes as proxies.Our analysis revealed that the use of calcium channel blockers (CCBs) is linked to a reduced risk of HT in both European (OR [95% CI]: 0.96 [0.95 to 0.98] per 1 mmHg decrease in SBP; p = 3.51×10 -5 ) and Asian populations (OR [95% CI]: 0.28 [0.12, 0.66]; p = 3.54×10 -3 ). Moreover, genetically mimicking the use of loop diuretics (OR [95% CI]: 0.94 [0.91, 0.97]; p = 3.57×10 -5 ) and thiazide diuretics (0.98 [0.96, 0.99]; p = 3.83×10 -3 ) showed a significant association with a decreased risk of HT only in European population. These outcomes were confirmed when eQTLs were employed to represent the effects of antihypertensive medications.The study suggests that CCBs and diuretics could potentially reduce the risk of HT in different populations. Additional research is needed to assess the feasibility of repurposing antihypertensive medications for the prevention of HT.

    Keywords: antihypertensive drugs, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Mendelian randomization, Drug-Target, SNP

    Received: 18 Apr 2024; Accepted: 17 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bing, chen, xu, mao and chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: cheng c. xu, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China

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