Alcohol consumption and telomere length: Mendelian randomization clarifies alcohol's effects

Area of Science:

• Genetics
• Longevity research
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Telomere length is a biomarker for cellular aging.
• The relationship between alcohol consumption and telomere length remains unclear.
• Large-scale genetic and observational studies are needed to elucidate this association.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the causal impact of alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorder (AUD) on telomere length.
• To compare observational findings with Mendelian randomization (MR) estimates.
• To explore potential non-linear relationships and threshold effects.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a large observational study of 245,354 UK Biobank participants.
• Employed two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) using genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from over 472,000 individuals.
• Incorporated non-linear MR analyses on UK Biobank data.

Main Results:

• MR analyses indicated a causal association between higher genetically-predicted AUD and shorter telomere length (β = -0.06).
• A weaker association was observed between genetically-predicted weekly alcohol consumption and shorter telomere length (β = -0.07).
• Non-linear analyses suggested a potential threshold effect of alcohol on telomere length, independent of smoking.

Conclusions:

• Alcohol consumption, especially AUD, is causally associated with shorter telomere length.
• These findings suggest alcohol consumption may accelerate biological aging.
• The results have implications for understanding alcohol's role in age-related diseases.