Abstract
BACKGROUND: The association between psoriasis and erectile dysfunction (ED) is currently inconsistent in epidemiological and observational studies and the causal relationship between them has not been established. The aim of our study is to explore the potential genetic association between ED and psoriasis. METHODS: We explored the putative causality between psoriasis and ED by bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR). The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with psoriasis were retrieved from a large-scale public genome-wide association study (GWAS). The summary statistics of ED were obtained from individuals of European ancestry with 6,175 cases vs. 217,630 controls. Inverse-variant weighted (IVW), weighted median (WM), MR-Egger, MR-Steiger, and MR pleiotropy residual sum and outlier (MR-PRESSO) test were employed in MR analyses to investigate the bidirectional causal relationship between psoriasis and ED. Several sensitivity analyses were employed to confirm the findings of the MR analysis. RESULTS: Our MR analysis indicated that genetically predicted psoriasis showed no association with a higher risk of ED [odds ratio (OR) 2.878, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.175-47.289, P=0.46]. As for the other direction, no causal association was disclosed between ED and psoriasis (OR 0.999, 95% CI: 0.997-1.002, P=0.62). These findings remained consistent in sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed a negative genetic association between psoriasis and ED. Certain acquired factors may contribute to a strong clinical connection between the two, highlighting the need for comprehensive management of these risk factors.