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Genetic evidence reveals phosphatidylcholine as a mediator in the causal relationship between omega-3 and multiple myeloma risk

Li J, Li Y, Wang J, Zhou Y, Wu Z, Song Y, Zhu G, Tian J

Scientific reports, 2025

1 citation

Abstract

Previous observational studies have indicated that omega-3 may reduce the risk of various cancers. However, the relationship between omega-3 and the incidence of multiple myeloma (MM) remains unclear. Therefore, we conducted a systematic Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to investigate the causal relationship between omega-3 and the risk of developing MM, while also exploring the potential mediating role of plasma lipids in this association. First, we conducted a two-sample MR study with MM using the omega-3 GWAS data from Richardson TG. We then repeated the validation with the other three omega-3 GWAS data and performed a meta-analysis of the MR results for a total of four omega-3 data. In the second step, we used multivariate Mendelian randomization (MVMR) analyses to adjust for the effects of confounders and explore the direct causal effects of omega-3 with MM. In the third step, we employed a two-step MR to investigate the potential mediating roles of 179 plasma lipids in the association between omega-3 and the risk of MM. Multiple sensitivity analyses were used to assess the robustness of the results. A two-sample MR analysis found that omega-3 can reduce the risk of MM (OR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.69-0.94; P = 0.005). In subsequent validation, omega-3 data from both Kettunen J and Davyson E yielded similar results. However, data from Zhang S indicated that omega-3 was not associated with MM risk. Ultimately, the meta-analysis results demonstrated that omega-3 can lower the…

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