Genetically predicted insomnia causally increases the risk of erectile dysfunction / 亚洲男科学杂志(英文版)

Sleep has attracted extensive attention due to its significance in health. However, its association with erectile dysfunction (ED) is insufficiently investigated. To investigate the potential causal links between sleep traits (insomnia, sleep duration, and chronotype) and ED, this study was performed. The single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with insomnia, sleep duration, and chronotype were retrieved from previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS). A conventional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) was used to estimate the causal links between sleep traits and ED. The summary statistics of ED were from individuals of European ancestry (6175 cases vs 217 630 controls). As shown by the random effect inverse-variance-weighting (IVW) estimator, genetically predicted insomnia was causally associated with a 1.15-fold risk of ED (95% confidence interval: 1.07-1.23, P < 0.001). Sleep duration and morningness were not causally associated with ED, as indicated by the IVW (all P > 0.05). These findings were consistent with the results of sensitivity analyses. Based on genetic data, this study provides causal evidence that genetically predicted insomnia increases the risk of ED, whereas sleep duration and chronotype do not.

Role of microRNAs in erectile dysfunction: An update / 中华男科学杂志

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs consisting of approximately 19－23 nucleotides and involved in many pathological and physiological processes by regulating post-transcriptional gene expressions. ED is one of the common male sexual dysfunctions seriously affecting the patient's quality of life, for which there is currently a lack of effective treatments clinically. More and more experiments have demonstrated that miRNAs are involved in the pathological process of different types of ED. This article presents an overview of the progress in the studies of the pathogenic role of miRNAs in ED.