Investigating the correlation between gut microbiota and prostate cancer through a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis

Previous studies in observational epidemiology have suggested a potential correlation between the gastrointestinal tract microbiota and prostate cancer. However, the causal relationship between the 2 remains uncertain, our objective was to thoroughly examine the influence of the gut microbiome on the progression of prostate cancer. In this study, we focused on investigating the gut microbiome as an exposure factor, specifically analyzing data from the MiBioGen consortium, which had a substantial sample size of 18,340 participants. As our disease outcome, we utilized prostate cancer data from the FinnGen genome-wide association study, which involved 13,216 participants. To establish causal relationships, we conducted a comprehensive Mendelian randomization analysis employing multiple methods, including inverse variance-weighted, Mendelian randomization-Egger, maximum likelihood, and weighted median approaches. Additionally, we performed sensitivity analysis to address issues such as heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy, ensuring the robustness of our findings. The results obtained through inverse variance-weighted analysis revealed that certain microbial groups exhibited a protective effect on prostate cancer. Specifically, the phylum Verrucomicrobia, particularly the family Rikenellaceae, and the genera Anaerotruncus, Eisenbergiella, Olsenella, and Parabacteroides were found to have a beneficial impact. Conversely, the class Bacilli, class Erysipelotrichia, order Erysipelotrichales, order Lactobacillales, family Erysipelotrichaceae, and the genera Marvinbryantia, Romboutsia, Ruminococcaceae UCG002, and Sutterella had an adverse influence on prostate cancer. The sensitivity analysis did not reveal any such outliers, further strengthening the validity of our results. To summarize, a cause-and-effect connection was discovered between various types and prostate cancer. Nevertheless, additional randomized controlled experiments are required for validation.