Branched chain amino acids harbor distinct and often opposing effects on health and disease.
Christy L AveryAnnie Green HowardHarold H LeeCarolina G DownieMoa P LeeSarah H KoenigsbergAnna F BallouMichael H PreussLaura M RaffieldRina A YaroshKari E NorthPenny Gordon-LarsenMariaelisa GraffPublished in: Communications medicine (2023)
Our results suggest that the observational literature provides a flawed picture of BCAA phenotypic effects that is inconsistent with experimental studies and could mislead efforts developing novel therapeutics. More broadly, these findings motivate the development and application of causal inference approaches that enable 'omics studies conducted in observational settings to account for the biasing effects of shared genetic and lifestyle factors.