Causal Associations between Gut Microbiota and Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Two-sample Mendelian Randomization Study.

OBJECTIVE

Trigeminal neuralgia is one of the most prevalent neurological conditions. The associations between gut microbiota and trigeminal neuralgia risks remain incompletely elucidated. Through Mendelian randomization (MR), this research seeks to assess the potential causal links between genetically determined abundance of gut microbiota and trigeminal neuralgia.

METHODS

Genetic variants were extracted from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) under stringent threshold as instrumental variables (IVs). A two-sample MR analyses were conducted to determine the causal associations, with sensitivity analyses such as Cochran's Q tests, MR-PRESSO and leave-one-out performed to detect potential heterogeneity and pleiotropy.

RESULTS

Our MR analysis revealed potential causal associations between trigeminal neuralgia and genetically predicted levels of Ruminococcaceae NK4A214 (IVW: OR: 0.52, 95%CI: 0.29-0.91, P =0.02), Eubacterium hallii (IVW: OR: 1.96, 95%CI: 1.15-3.35, P =0.01), Ruminococcus 2 (IVW: OR: 0.52, 95%CI: 0.29-0.94, P =0.03), Prevotella 7 (IVW: OR: 0.61, 95%CI: 0.4-0.92, P =0.02) and Hungatella (IVW: OR: 0.51, 95%CI: 0.27-0.96, P =0.04). Sensitivity analyses, including Cochran's Q tests, MR-Egger, MR-PRESSO, and leave-one-out assessments, were conducted to identify potential heterogeneity and pleiotropy.

CONCLUSION

Our results identified suggestive causal associations between genetically predicted gut microbiota and trigeminal neuralgia. The findings highlight the necessity for further exploration into the underlying etiology of trigeminal neuralgia.