Causal Effect of Lipoprotein-Associated Phospholipase A2 Activity on Ischemic Stroke: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Background: The relationship between ischemic stroke (IS) and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) activity is still unclear, and there is a dearth of stratified research on the relationship between Lp-PLA2 activity and different IS subtypes. Therefore, Mendelian randomization (MR) was used in this study to examine the relationship between genetically proxied Lp-PLA2 activity and the risks of IS and its subtypes.

Methods: Based on information from a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies, which included 13,664 European people, five single nucleotide polymorphisms related to Lp-PLA2 activity were chosen as instrumental variables. Summary statistics information about the MEGESTROKE consortium with the European group (40,585 cases and 406,111 controls) include any IS (AIS; n = 34,217), large-artery stroke (LAS; n = 4,373), cardioembolic stroke (CES; n = 7,193), and small-vessel stroke (SVS; n = 5,386). In order to determine the causal relationships between Lp-PLA2 activity and IS as well as its subtypes, the inverse-variance-weighted (IVW) approach was chosen as the primary analysis. Significant estimates were then tested by sensitivity analysis to rule out heterogeneity and pleiotropy.

Results: IVW showed that Lp-PLA2 activity was causally associated with LAS (odds ratio = 3.25, 95% confidence interval = 1.65-6.41, p = 0.0007) but not with other subtypes of stroke. Sensitivity analysis for causal estimates between Lp-PLA2 activity and LAS showed no significant heterogeneity or pleiotropy.

Conclusions: These MR analyses support a causal effect of Lp-PLA2 activity on LAS but not on AIS, CES, or SVS, which suggests that serum Lp-PLA2 activity might be a biomarker for prediction of LAS.