Comparison of caffeine consumption behavior with plasma caffeine levels as exposure measures in drug-target mendelian randomization.

ABSTRACT: Mendelian randomization is an epidemiologic technique that can explore the potential effect of perturbing a pharmacological target. Plasma caffeine levels can be used as a biomarker to measure the pharmacological effects of caffeine. Alternatively, this can be assessed using a behavioral proxy, such as average number of caffeinated drinks consumed per day. Either variable can be used as the exposure in a Mendelian randomization investigation, and to select which genetic variants to use as instrumental variables. Another possibility is to choose variants in gene regions with known biological relevance to caffeine level regulation. These choices affect the causal question that is being addressed by the analysis, and the validity of the analysis assumptions. Further, even when using the same

SUBMITTER: Woolf B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7616520 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature