Genetic correlation between prostate cancer and central obesity: a Mendelian randomization study

Our aim was to apply Mendelian randomization to find possible causal relationships between prostate cancer and central obesity. Based on waist-to-hip ratio GWAS and prostate cancer GWAS data as the experimental group, we used 8 MR methods to explore the possible causal relationship between waist-to-hip ratio and prostate cancer. Situation with P < 0.05 was suggested causal relationship. Gene annotation and Gene Ontology (GO) molecular functional enrichment analysis of meaningful SNPs were performed to find potentially significantly molecular function and enriched genes. Finally, we searched for the overlapping molecular functions of the experimental group and the validation group and the overlapping genes enriched in them. All the 8 methods MR methods showed causal relationship between waist-to-hip ratio and prostate cancer in experimental group. The GO enrichment analysis showed that the molecular function of the main enriched pathway, called DNA-binding transcription activator activity, RNA polymerase II-specific, overlapped in the experimental group and the validation group. Our results manifest that waist-to-hip ratio has a potential causal relationship with prostate cancer.