De Souza Silverio C, Bonilla C. Vitamin D-associated genetic variants in the Brazilian population: Investigating potential instruments for Mendelian randomization.
Biomedica 2024;
44:45-53. [PMID:
38648345 DOI:
10.7705/biomedica.6972]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Vitamin D is required for bone and mineral metabolism and participates in the regulation of the immune response. It is also linked to several chronic diseases and conditions, usually in populations of European descent. Brazil presents a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency despite the widespread availability of sunlight in the country. Thus, it is important to investigate the role of vitamin D as a risk factor for disease and to establish causal relationships between vitamin D levels and health-related outcomes in the Brazilian population.
OBJECTIVE
To examine genetic variants identified as determinants of serum vitamin D in genome-wide association studies of European populations and check whether the same associations are present in Brazil. If so, these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) could be developed locally as proxies to use in genetically informed causal inference methods, such as Mendelian randomization.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We extracted SNPs associated with vitamin D from the genomewide association studies catalog. We did a literature search to select papers ascertaining these variants and vitamin D concentrations in Brazil.
RESULTS
GC was the gene with the strongest association with vitamin D levels, in agreement with existing findings in European populations. However, VDR was the most investigated gene, regardless of its non-existing association with vitamin D in the genomewide association studies.
CONCLUSIONS
More research is needed to validate sound proxies for vitamin D levels in Brazil, for example, prioritizing GC rather than VDR.
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