Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a complex disease associated with premature mortality. Its diagnosis is challenging, and the identification of biomarkers causally influenced by NAFLD may be clinically useful. We aimed at identifying blood metabolites causally impacted by NAFLD using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) with validation in a population-based biobank. Our instrument for genetically predicted NAFLD included all independent genetic variants from a recent genome-wide association study. The outcomes included 123 blood metabolites from 24,925 individuals. After correction for multiple testing, a positive effect of NAFLD on plasma tyrosine levels but not on other metabolites was identified. This association was consistent across MR methods and was robust to outliers and pleiotropy. In observational analyses performed in the Estonian Biobank (10,809 individuals including 359 patients with NAFLD), after multivariable adjustment, tyrosine levels were positively associated with the presence of NAFLD (odds ratio per 1 SD increment = 1.23 [95% confidence interval = 1.12-1.36], p = 2.19 × 10-5). In a small proof-of-concept study on bariatric surgery patients, blood tyrosine levels were higher in patients with NAFLD than without. This study revealed a potentially causal effect of NAFLD on blood tyrosine levels, suggesting it may represent a new biomarker of NAFLD.
Keywords: Mendelian randomization; biomarker; metabolites; non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; obesity; tyrosine.