| Title: | Alcohol consumption and telomere length: Mendelian randomization clarifies alcohol's effects |
| Journal: | Molecular Psychiatry |
| Published: | 26 Jul 2022 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35879401/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01690-9 |
| URL: | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01690-9.pdf |
Publication 10374
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Abstract
Alcohol's impact on telomere length, a proposed marker of biological aging, is unclear. We performed the largest observational study to date (in n = 245,354 UK Biobank participants) and compared findings with Mendelian randomization (MR) estimates. Two-sample MR used data from 472,174 participants in a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) of telomere length. Genetic variants were selected on the basis of associations with alcohol consumption (n = 941,280) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) (n = 57,564 cases). Non-linear MR employed UK Biobank individual data. MR analyses suggested a causal relationship between alcohol traits, more strongly for AUD, and telomere length. Higher genetically-predicted AUD (inverse variance-weighted (IVW) β = −0.06, 95% confidence interval (CI): −0.10 to −0.02, p = 0.001) was associated with shorter telomere length. There was a weaker association with genetically-predicted alcoholic drinks weekly (IVW β = −0.07, CI: −0.14 to −0.01, p = 0.03). Results were consistent across methods and independent from smoking. Non-linear analyses indicated a potential threshold relationship between alcohol and telomere length. Our findings indicate that alcohol consumption may shorten telomere length. There are implications for age-related diseases.</p>
11 Authors
- A. Topiwala
- B. Taschler
- K. P. Ebmeier
- S. Smith
- H. Zhou
- D. F. Levey
- V. Codd
- N. J. Samani
- J. Gelernter
- T. E. Nichols
- S. Burgess
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