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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Sleep Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1420391
This article is part of the Research Topic Recent Advances in Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) View all 8 articles

Association between hypothyroidism and obstructive sleep apnea: A bidirectional Mendelian randomization study Combined with the Geo Database

Provisionally accepted
Mingyu Zhao Mingyu Zhao Xu Huang Xu Huang Hu Zheng Hu Zheng Yuhang Cai Yuhang Cai Wenjia Han Wenjia Han Ran Chen Ran Chen *Yuanyin Wang Yuanyin Wang *
  • Key Laboratory of Oral Disease Research of Anhui Province, Stomatologic Hospital and College, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China

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

    Background: The causal relationship between hypothyroidism and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) remains controversial. Therefore, our research used a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) method in an attempt to determine the causal relationship between hypothyroidism and OSA.Methods: From the publicly accessible genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) summary database, we obtained single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) data pertaining to hypothyroidism and OSA. Inverse variance weighting (IVW) was the principal method of analysis utilized, with validation also conducted via weighted median, MR-Egger, simple model, and weighted model approaches. To further evaluate the robustness of the results, heterogeneity testing, pleiotropy testing, and the "leave-one-out" sensitivity analysis were performed. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from the OSA dataset (GSE135917) and hypothyroidism dataset (GSE176153) derived from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were screened using the "limma" package. The "clusterProfiler" and "GO plot" packages were used for further enrichment analysis in order to validate the findings of the MR study. The Cytoscape software was utilized to build a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of DEGs and to screen for hub genes.Results: The MR analysis showed that genetically predicted hypothyroidism was associated with an increased risk of OSA (IVW odds ratio (OR) = 1.734; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.073-2.801; P = 0.025). The trend of the outcomes of the other approaches is consistent with the trend of the IVW outcome. However, the reverse MR analysis suggested no evidence for the causal effect of OSA on hypothyroidism (IVW OR = 1.002, 95% CI: 0.996-1.009, p = 0.454). The robustness of the results was confirmed by the sensitivity analysis. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that there were DEGs that hypothyroidism and OSA have in common.Our findings suggested that hypothyroidism may increase the risk of OSA, while the effect of OSA on hypothyroidism was not found in this MR study. Thus, patients with hypothyroidism should be enhanced with screening for OSA for early diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

    Keywords: Hypothyroidism, obstructive sleep apnea, GEO, Mendelian randomization, causality

    Received: 20 Apr 2024; Accepted: 28 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhao, Huang, Zheng, Cai, Han, Chen and Wang. 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:
    Ran Chen, Key Laboratory of Oral Disease Research of Anhui Province, Stomatologic Hospital and College, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
    Yuanyin Wang, Key Laboratory of Oral Disease Research of Anhui Province, Stomatologic Hospital and College, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China

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