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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.
Sec. Applied Genetic Epidemiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1423357

Genetically predicted allergic rhinitis causally increases the risk of erectile dysfunction

Provisionally accepted
Peng Li Peng Li 1Zhaotun Meng Zhaotun Meng 2*Liqiang Lin Liqiang Lin 2*Zhipeng Chen Zhipeng Chen 2*Huaiqing Lv Huaiqing Lv 2*
  • 1 School of Clinical Medicine, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, Shandong Province, China
  • 2 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Linyi People’s Hospital, Linyi, China

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

    Objective: Evidence shows that allergic rhinitis (AR) may increase the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED). This study aims to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between AAR and ED by mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. Methods: We performed a two-sample MR analysis using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary data. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with AR and ED were obtained from the GWAS database. The MR analysis primarily employed the inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR Egger, and weighted median (WM) methods. We assessed pleiotropy using the MR-PRESSO global test and MR-Egger regression. Cochran’s Q test was used to evaluate heterogeneity, and a leave-one-out analysis was performed to verify the robustness and reliability of the results. Results: The IVW analysis demonstrated a positive association between genetic susceptibility to AR and an elevated relative risk of ED (IVW OR = 1.40, P = 0.01, 95%CI 1.08-1.80). The results obtained from MR-Egger regression and WM methods exhibited a consistent trend with the results of the IVW method. Sensitivity analyses showed no evidence of heterogeneity nor horizontal pleiotropy. The leave-one-out analysis showed that the findings remained robust and were unaffected by any instrumental variables. Conclusion: This study presents genetic evidence that indicates a causal association between AR and ED.

    Keywords: allergic rhinitis, Erectile Dysfunction, Mendelian randomization, Causal estimates, Statistic method

    Received: 25 Apr 2024; Accepted: 12 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Meng, Lin, Chen and Lv. 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:
    Zhaotun Meng, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Linyi People’s Hospital, Linyi, China
    Liqiang Lin, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Linyi People’s Hospital, Linyi, China
    Zhipeng Chen, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Linyi People’s Hospital, Linyi, China
    Huaiqing Lv, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Linyi People’s Hospital, Linyi, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.