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Effects of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids on cognitive impairment: evidence from Mendelian randomization study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Background

Prior observational studies have suggested correlations between saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) with cognitive function. However, causal relationships remains unclear.

Methods

We assessed the causal impact of two SFAs (palmitic acid [PA] and stearic acid [SA]) and two MUFAs (oleic acid [OA] and palmitoleic acid [POA]) on cognitive function-related traits, and dementia-related traits by univariable Mendelian randomization (UVMR) and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MVMR) analyses.

Results

UVMR indicated β of 0.060 (P = 4.05E−06) for cognitive performance score and 0.066 (P = 4.21E−04) for fluid intelligence per standard deviation (SD) increase in OA level. MVMR indicated: (i) β of −0.608 (P = 8.37E−05) for fluid intelligence score per SD increase in POA; (ii) β of 0.074 (P = 0.018) for fluid intelligence score per SD increase in OA; (iii) β of 0.029 (P = 0.033) for number of incorrect matches in round per SD increase in PA; and (iv) β of 0.039 (P = 0.032) for number of incorrect matches in round per SD increase in SA. In addition, a secondary MVMR analysis after excluding the effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids suggested that: (i) β of −0.043 (P = 1.97E−02) for cognitive performance score per SD increase in PA and (ii) β of −0.079 (P = 1.79E−03) for cognitive performance score per SD increase in SA.

Conclusions

Overall, UVMR and MVMR suggest that OA may be beneficial for cognitive function, while POA, PA, and SA may have detrimental effects on cognitive function.

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Fig. 1: General flowchart of the present MR study.

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Data availability

The GWAS summary statistics used for this MR study are shown in Supplementary Table S1.

Code availability

The code used for this study is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25335814.v1.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the GWAS Catalog database, IEU OpenGWAS project, Neale lab, and FinnGen consortium for providing GWAS summary-level statistics.

Funding

This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Changsha City (No. kq2208356 to GL), Health Research Project of Hunan Provincial Health Commission (No. W20243026 to GL), Health Research Project of Hunan Provincial Health Commission (No. W20243009 to JT).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410013, Hunan, China

    Youjie Zeng & Guoxin Lin

  2. Clinical Research Center for Reproduction and Genetics in Hunan Province, Reproductive and Genetic Hospital of CITIC-XIANGYA, Changsha, 410205, Hunan, China

    Si Cao

  3. Department of Nephrology, The Third Xiangya Hospital, The Critical Kidney Disease Research Center, Central South University, Changsha, 410013, China

    Juan Tang

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Contributions

Conceptualization: Guoxin Lin, Juan Tang; Methodology: Youjie Zeng, Si Cao; Software: Si Cao; Validation: Youjie Zeng, Si Cao; Formal analysis: Youjie Zeng, Si Cao; Investigation: Youjie Zeng, Si Cao; Resources: Guoxin Lin; Data Curation: Youjie Zeng, Si Cao; Writing - Original Draft: Youjie Zeng; Writing - Review & Editing: Guoxin Lin, Juan Tang; Visualization: Youjie Zeng, Si Cao; Supervision: Guoxin Lin; Project administration: Guoxin Lin, Juan Tang; Funding acquisition: Juan Tang, Guoxin Lin.

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Correspondence to Juan Tang or Guoxin Lin.

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The MR study was a secondary analysis based on publicly available GWAS summary level statistics and therefore no additional ethical approval or informed consent was required.

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Zeng, Y., Cao, S., Tang, J. et al. Effects of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids on cognitive impairment: evidence from Mendelian randomization study. Eur J Clin Nutr (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-024-01437-5

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