Triangulating evidence from observational and Mendelian randomization studies of ketone bodies for cognitive performance

BACKGROUND: Ketone bodies (KBs) are an alternative energy supply for brain functions when glucose is limited. The most abundant ketone metabolite, 3-β-hydroxybutyrate (BOHBUT), has been suggested to prevent or delay cognitive impairment, but the evidence remains unclear. We triangulated observational and Mendelian randomization (MR) studies to investigate the association and causation between KBs and cognitive function. METHODS: In observational analyses of 5506 participants aged ≥ 45 years from the Whitehall II study, we used multiple linear regression to investigate the associations between categorized KBs and cognitive function scores. Two-sample MR was carried out using summary statistics from an in-house KBs meta-analysis between the University College London-London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine-Edinburgh-Bristol (UCLEB) Consortium and Kettunen et al. (N = 45,031), and publicly available summary statistics of cognitive performance and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (N = 257,841), and the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (N = 54,162), respectively. Both strong (P < 5 × 10(−8)) and suggestive (P < 1 × 10(−5)) sets of instrumental variables for BOHBUT were applied. Finally, we performed cis-MR on OXCT1, a well-known gene for KB catabolism. RESULTS: BOHBUT was positively associated with general cognitive function (β = 0.26, P = 9.74 × 10(−3)). In MR analyses, we observed a protective effect of BOHBUT on cognitive performance (inverse variance weighted: β(IVW) = 7.89 × 10(−2), P(IVW) = 1.03 × 10(−2); weighted median: β(W-Median) = 8.65 × 10(−2), P(W-Median) = 9.60 × 10(−3)) and a protective effect on AD (β(IVW) = − 0.31, odds ratio: OR = 0.74, P(IVW) = 3.06 × 10(−2)). Cis-MR showed little evidence of therapeutic modulation of OXCT1 on cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Triangulation of evidence suggests that BOHBUT has a beneficial effect on cognitive performance. Our findings raise the hypothesis that increased BOHBUT may improve general cognitive functions, delaying cognitive impairment and reducing the risk of AD. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12916-023-03047-7.