Assessing the role of blood pressure in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a Mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND: Observational studies have suggested a close but controversial relationship between blood pressure (BP) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It remains unclear whether this association is causal. The authors employed a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to evaluate the causal relationship between BP and ALS. Genetic proxies for systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), antihypertensive drugs (AHDs), ALS, and their corresponding genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary datasets were obtained from the most recent studies with the largest sample sizes. The inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was adopted as the main approach to examine the effect of BP on ALS and four other MR methods were used for sensitivity analyses. To exclude the interference between SBP and DBP, a multivariable MR approach was used. RESULTS: We found that genetically determined increased DBP was a protective factor for ALS (OR = 0.978, 95% CI 0.960–0.996, P = 0.017) and that increased SBP was an independent risk factor for ALS (OR = 1.014, 95% CI 1.003–1.025, P = 0.015), which is supported by sensitivity analyses. The use of calcium channel blocker (CCB) showed a causal relationship with ALS (OR = 0.985, 95% CI 0.971–1.000, P = 0.049). No evidence was revealed that ALS caused changes in BP. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides genetic support for a causal effect of BP and ALS that increased DBP has a protective effect on ALS, and increased SBP is a risk factor for ALS, which may be related to sympathetic excitability. Blood pressure management is essential in ALS, and CCB may be a promising candidate. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13023-022-02212-0.