Association between 35 blood and urine biomarkers and oral leukoplakia: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study

BackgroundSeveral existing studies have shown a correlation between some of the blood and urine biomarkers and oral leukoplakia (OLK). However, the causality of this relationship remains uncertain. Thus, this study aimed to examine the causal association between 35 blood and urine biomarkers and OLK.MethodsSingle nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with 35 blood and urine biomarkers were selected as instrumental variables (IVs) using a two-sample Mendelian randomization(MR) study to assess the causal relationship between the biomarkers and the risk of oral leukoplakia. We used the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method as the main analysis. Furthermore, several sensitivity analyses were performed to assess heterogeneity, horizontal pleiotropy, and stability.ResultsBased on the selection criteria of the Inverse Variance Weighted (IVW) method, the analysis found that 5 blood and urine biomarkers were significantly associated with the development of leukoplakia, of which the results of IVW showed that abnormalities of Apolipoprotein B (Apo B), Cholesterol, Low-density Lipoprotein (LDL), Triglycerides (TG) promoted the development of oral leukoplakia, and Non Albumin Protein (NAP) had a protective effect on the development of oral leukoplakia. We then performed a Bonferroni correction for these results, and after correction Apo B was still causally associated with the development of oral leukoplakia (IVW P