Serum apolipoproteins and mortality risk: evidence from observational and Mendelian randomization analyses

Am J Clin Nutr. 2024 Apr;119(4):981-989. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.01.002. Epub 2024 Jan 10.

Abstract

Background: Apolipoproteins (APOs) have emerged as significant players in lipid metabolism that affects the risk of chronic disease. However, the impact of circulating APO concentrations on premature death remains undetermined.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the associations of serum APOs with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related, and cancer-related mortality.

Methods: We included 340,737 participants who had serum APO measurements from the UK Biobank. Restricted cubic splines and multivariable Cox regression models were used to assess the associations between APOs and all-cause and cause-specific mortality by computing hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Based on 1-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) design, including 398,457 participants of White ancestry who had genotyping data from the UK Biobank, we performed instrumental variable analysis with 2-stage least squares regression to assess the association between genetically predicted APOs and mortality.

Results: After adjusting for potential confounders including high-density and low-density lipoprotein particles, we observed nonlinear inverse relationships of APOA1 with all-cause, CVD-related, and cancer-related mortality (P-nonlinear < 0.001). By contrast, positive relationships were observed for APOB and all-cause (P-nonlinear < 0.001), CVD-related (P-linear < 0.001), and cancer-related (P-linear = 0.03) mortality. MR analysis showed consistent results, except that the association between APOB and cancer mortality was null. Furthermore, both observational and MR analyses found an inverse association between APOA1 and lung cancer-related mortality (HR comparing extreme deciles: 0.46; 95% CI: 0.26, 0.80; and HR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.63, 0.97, respectively).

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that circulating APOA1 has potential beneficial effects on all-cause, CVD-related, and lung cancer-related death risk, whereas APOB may confer detrimental effects on all-cause and CVD-related death risk.

Keywords: apolipoprotein A1; apolipoprotein B; cancer; cardiovascular disease; mortality.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Apolipoproteins / genetics
  • Apolipoproteins B
  • Cardiovascular Diseases*
  • Humans
  • Lung Neoplasms*
  • Mendelian Randomization Analysis
  • Risk Factors

Substances

  • Apolipoproteins
  • Apolipoproteins B