UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Exploring the causal effects of genetic liability to ADHD and Autism on Alzheimer's disease

Pagoni, Panagiota; Dardani, Christina; Leppert, Beate; Korologou-Linden, Roxanna; Smith, George Davey; Howe, Laura D; Anderson, Emma L; (2022) Exploring the causal effects of genetic liability to ADHD and Autism on Alzheimer's disease. Translational Psychiatry , 12 (1) , Article 422. 10.1038/s41398-022-02150-2. Green open access

[thumbnail of s41398-022-02150-2.pdf]
Preview
PDF
s41398-022-02150-2.pdf - Published Version

Download (546kB) | Preview

Abstract

Few studies suggest possible links between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Alzheimer’s disease but they have been limited by small sample sizes, diagnostic and recall bias. We used two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to estimate the bidirectional causal association between genetic liability to ADHD and ASD on Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, we estimated the causal effects independently of educational attainment and IQ, through multivariable Mendelian randomization (MVMR). We employed genetic variants associated with ADHD (20,183 cases/35,191 controls), ASD (18,381 cases/27,969 controls), Alzheimer’s disease (71,880 cases/383,378 controls), educational attainment (n = 766,345) and IQ (n = 269,867) using the largest GWAS of European ancestry. There was limited evidence to suggest a causal effect of genetic liability to ADHD (odds ratio [OR] = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.98–1.02, P = 0.39) or ASD (OR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.97–1.01, P = 0.70) on Alzheimer’s disease. Similar causal effect estimates were identified as direct effects, independent of educational attainment (ADHD: OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.99–1.01, P = 0.76; ASD: OR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.98–1.00, P = 0.28) and IQ (ADHD: OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.99–1.02. P = 0.29; ASD: OR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.98–1.01, P = 0.99). Genetic liability to Alzheimer’s disease was not found to have a causal effect on risk of ADHD or ASD (ADHD: OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.86–1.44, P = 0.37; ASD: OR = 1.19, 95% CI: 0.94–1.51, P = 0.14). We found limited evidence to suggest a causal effect of genetic liability to ADHD or ASD on Alzheimer’s disease; and vice versa.

Type: Article
Title: Exploring the causal effects of genetic liability to ADHD and Autism on Alzheimer's disease
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-022-02150-2
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-02150-2
Language: English
Additional information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords: Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Psychiatry, DEFICIT-HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER, ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER, AGE-DEPENDENT DECLINE, MENDELIAN RANDOMIZATION, SPECTRUM DISORDERS, LATE-ONSET, FOLLOW-UP, INSTRUMENTS, CHILDHOOD, IMPACT
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry > Mental Health of Older People
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10182228
Downloads since deposit
12Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item