Participants Of European Ancestry Research Articles

Mendelian randomisation and mediation analysis of self-reported walking pace and coronary artery disease.

The aim of this study was to assess the causal relationship between habitual walking pace and cardiovascular disease risk using a Mendelian randomisation approach. We performed both one- and two-sample Mendelian randomisation analyses in a sample of 340,000 European ancestry participants from UK Biobank, applying a range of sensitivity analyses to assess pleiotropy and reverse causality. We used a latent variable framework throughout to model walking pace as a continuous exposure, despite being measured in discrete categories, which provided more robust and interpretable causal effect estimates. Using one-sample Mendelian randomisation, we estimated that a 1mph (i.e., 1.6kph) increase in self-reported habitual walking pace corresponds to a 63% (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.37, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.25-0.55, P = 2.0 × 10-6) reduction in coronary artery disease risk. Using conditional analyses, we also estimated that the proportion of the total effect on coronary artery disease mediated through BMI was 45% (95% CI 16-70%). We further validated findings from UK Biobank using two-sample Mendelian randomisation with outcome data from the CARDIoGRAMplusC4D consortium. Our findings suggest that interventions that seek to encourage individuals to walk more briskly should lead to protective effects on cardiovascular disease risk.

Genetic predisposition, modifiable lifestyles, and their joint effects on human lifespan: evidence from multiple cohort studies

ObjectiveTo investigate the associations across genetic and lifestyle factors with lifespan.DesignA longitudinal cohort study.SettingUK Biobank.Participants353 742 adults of European ancestry, who were recruited from 2006 to 2010 and were followed...

Physical activity alters the effect of genetic determinants of adiposity on hypertension among individuals of European ancestry in the UKB.

Hypertension is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is modulated by genetic variants. This study aimed to assess the effect of obesity genetic liability and physical activity on hypertension among European and African ancestry individuals within the UK Biobank (UKB). Participants were 230 115 individuals of European ancestry and 3239 individuals of African ancestry from UKB. Genetic liability for obesity were estimated using previously published data including genetic variants and effect sizes for body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC) using Plink software. The outcome was defined as stage 2 hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg, or the use of anti-hypertensive medications). The association between obesity genetic liability and the outcome was assessed across categories of self-reported physical activity using logistic regression. Among European ancestry participants, there was up to a 1.2 greater odds of hypertension in individuals with high genetic liability and low physical activity compared to individuals with low genetic liability and high physical activity (p < 0.001). In individuals engaging in low levels of physical activity compared with moderate/high physical activity, the effect of BMI genetic liability on hypertension was greater (p interaction = 0.04). There was no evidence of an association between obesity genetic liability and hypertension in individuals of African ancestry in the whole sample or within separate physical activity groups (p > 0.05). This study suggests that higher physical activity levels are associated with lower odds of stage 2 hypertension among European ancestry individuals who carry high genetic liability for obesity. This cannot be inferred for individuals of African ancestry, possibly due to the low African ancestry sample size within the UKB.

Clinically relevant plasma proteome for adiposity depots: evidence from systematic mendelian randomization and colocalization analyses

BackgroundThe accumulation of visceral and ectopic fat comprise a major cause of cardiometabolic diseases. However, novel drug targets for reducing unnecessary visceral and ectopic fat are still limited. Our study aims to provide a comprehensive investigation of the causal effects of the plasma proteome on visceral and ectopic fat using Mendelian randomization (MR) approach.MethodsWe performed two-sample MR analyses based on five large genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics of 2656 plasma proteins, to screen for causal associations of these proteins with traits of visceral and ectopic fat in over 30,000 participants of European ancestry, as well as to assess mediation effects by risk factors of outcomes. The colocalization analysis was conducted to examine whether the identified proteins and outcomes shared casual variants.ResultsGenetically predicted levels of 14 circulating proteins were associated with visceral and ectopic fat (P < 4.99 × 10− 5, at a Bonferroni-corrected threshold). Colocalization analysis prioritized ten protein targets that showed effect on outcomes, including FST, SIRT2, DNAJB9, IL6R, CTSA, RGMB, PNLIPRP1, FLT4, PPY and IL6ST. MR analyses revealed seven risk factors for visceral and ectopic fat (P < 0.0024). Furthermore, the associations of CTSA, DNAJB9 and IGFBP1 with primary outcomes were mediated by HDL-C and SHBG. Sensitivity analyses showed little evidence of pleiotropy.ConclusionsOur study identified candidate proteins showing putative causal effects as potential therapeutic targets for visceral and ectopic fat accumulation and outlined causal pathways for further prevention of downstream cardiometabolic diseases.

Abstract LB146: Multi Omics analyses identified novel loci and genes for lung cancer risk among European Descendants

Abstract Introduction Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified &amp;gt;60 genomic loci for lung cancer risk. However, causal genes and the underlying biological mechanisms for most of these loci remain unknown. Therefore, we conducted a multi-omics study to identify lung cancer susceptibility genes. Method We first conducted a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) using S-PrediXcan framework. Whole transcriptome data from adjacent-normal lung tissue samples and genomic data from 304 European-ancestry lung cancer patients were used to build genetic prediction models for expression levels of protein-coding genes and lincRNAs. The prediction models were then applied to GWAS meta-analysis results for lung cancer with 39,363 cases and 621,480 controls of European descents from TRICL-ILCCO, the UK Biobank, and FinnGen. COJO was used to assess whether those significant genes were independent of proximal (±1.5 Mb) GWAS-identified risk variants. To replicate our TWAS-identified genes, we used data from GTEx version 8 normal lung tissue (N=444) to build imputation models and then run association analyses. We acquired gene (N=107) and protein expression data (N=111) from tumor and matched adjacent-normal lung tissues from European-ancestry participants in the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium. Paired Wilcoxon rank sum tests were then conducted to assess whether identified genes and their corresponding proteins were expressed differentially. Results Out of 18,850 genes (read count &amp;gt;6 and TPM &amp;gt;0.1 in at least 20% samples), 6,754 protein-coding genes and 802 lincRNAs were predicted reliably using genetic variants (R&amp;gt;0.1 and P&amp;lt;0.05). Among them, genetically proxied expression levels of 24 genes located at 15 loci were significantly associated with lung cancer risk at a Bonferroni adjusted P &amp;lt;0.05. Four genes were located at four novel loci, including SERF1A at 5q13.2, SMIM33 at 5q31.2, MUC5B at 11p15.5, and RASSF10 at 11p15.2. Six putative candidate genes, namely H4C13, HCP5B, STN1, COPS2, SKIV2L, and LINC00243 resided in previously GWAS-identified lung cancer loci but have not been reported. Of these six genes, SKIV2L (Padjust=1.49e-5) and LINC00243 (Padjust=3.47e-5) were independently associated with lung cancer risk even after adjusting for GWAS-identified variants. Among 24 identified genes, 16 showed a consistent significant association with lung cancer risk (p&amp;lt;0.05) based on the prediction models built using GTEx data. Of ten unreported or novel genes, MUC5B, SMIM33, SERF1A, STN1, COPS2, and LINC00243 showed differential gene expression at P &amp;lt;0.05 and consistent association direction with TWAS results. Three proteins, STN1, COPS2, and SKIV2L, showed differential expression in tumor and adjacent-normal tissue at P&amp;lt;0.05, which is consistent with our TWAS direction. Conclusion Our findings offer novel insights into lung cancer carcinogenesis by uncovering new genes and loci. Citation Format: Shuai Xu, Yaohua Yang, Tianying Zhao, Jiajun Shi, Jie Ping, Wanqing Wen, Hui Cai, Xingyi Guo, Ran Tao, Xiao-Ou Shu, Wei Zheng, Jirong Long, Qiuyin Cai. Multi Omics analyses identified novel loci and genes for lung cancer risk among European Descendants [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 2 (Late-Breaking, Clinical Trial, and Invited Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(7_Suppl):Abstract nr LB146.

430 Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies novel risk loci for uterine fibroids across multiple ancestry groups

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Uterine fibroids are benign tumors of the uterus with a high disease prevalence and burden, yet there are few multi-ancestry genetic studies. This is the largest and most diverse fibroid GWAS to-date. Our goal is to identify novel genetic variants and gene expression pathways associated with fibroids and characterize their biological relevance. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We performed a cross-ancestry meta-analysis of GWAS summary statistics from eight datasets. The total sample size was 74,294 cases and 465,810 controls with participants of European (80% of sample), African (4%), East Asian, and Central South Asian (16%) ancestry. We mapped variants to genes with OpenTarget Genetics and used Functional Mapping and Annotation to conduct tissue expression gene-set enrichment and identify lead variants. We used S-PrediXcan to estimate genetically predicted gene expression (GPGE) associated with fibroid risk. This was with models that predicted gene expression across 49 different tissue types. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis compiled significant GPGE genes and their weights with a scientific literature database to identify overlapping pathways. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We identified 370 independent significant variants. Among these, we identified variants mapped to three novel genes (PAX2, VIP, FOXO3) and eight genes not previously validated (TEKT1, SLC16A11, RPEL1, RASL11B, ASGR1, SLC12A7, TTC28, POLR2A). Many loci have roles in cell cycle regulation or are associated with fibroid risk factors like blood pressure, BMI, and vitamin D levels. Loci were significantly enriched in DNA damage and cell cycle pathways. Of 588 significant predicted expression gene-tissue pairs, 173 unique genes were novel fibroid associations. These genes are also associated with cancers, estradiol, and endometriosis. Top enriched pathways included p53 signaling, HOTAIR, BRCA1DNA damage response, and pulmonary fibrosis signaling. In uterine tissue there were 15 novel GPGE associations. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Using this large and diverse data, we identified novel loci associated with fibroids that are enriched in hormone-response, DNA damage, and cell-cycle pathways. GPGE loci were in tumorigenesis and fibrosis pathways. These novel genetic loci and uterine gene expression findings may provide translational opportunities for novel fibroid treatments.

Mapping the causal associations of cytokines with sarcopenia and aging traits: Evidence from bidirectional Mendelian randomization.

Cytokines and growth factors may serve as a bridge in studying the causal relationships between inflammaging and sarcopenia due to their roles in inflammaging. In this study, we aim to explore the causal association of cytokines with sarcopenia and aging traits and further identify the significant inflammation factors. Bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was used to identify the causality. Forty-one kinds of circulation cytokines and growth factors were set as exposures, and the data were from a summary genome-wide association study (GWAS) containing three cohorts with 8293 healthy participants of European ancestry from 1983 to 2011. Hand grip strength, adjusted appendicular lean mass (AALM), usual walking pace, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels, able to walk or cycle unaided for 10min (AWCU10) and telomere length were selected as outcomes. Data for outcomes were obtained from meta-GWAS and the UK Biobank, and sample sizes ranged from 69537 to 472174. Low hand grip strength was defined by the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) and Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) cut-off points, respectively. Other outcome traits were defined and measured according to the UK Biobank and raw cohorts' criteria. We set two significance thresholds for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with exposures to obtain adequate SNPs (5×10-6 and 5×10-8). Inverse-variance weighted, MR-Egger and weighted median were employed to estimate the causality. Twenty-seven factors were identified to relate to sarcopenia and aging traits causally, and most were associated with only one outcome trait. IL16 (interleukin-16), CTACK (cutaneous T-cell attracting chemokine), MIP1b (macrophage inflammatory protein 1b) and PDGFbb (platelet-derived growth factor BB) were proven to relate causally to at least one sarcopenia and aging trait in both analyses with two significance thresholds. IL16 was causally associated with hand grip strength (0.977 [0.956-0.998] for EWGSOP and 0.933 [0.874-0.996] for FNIH), AALM (0.991 [0.984, 0.998]), MVPA (0.997 [0.995-1.000]) and AWCU10 (1.008 [1.003-1.013]). CTACK was proven to relate causally to hand grip strength (1.013 [1.007-1.019] for EWGSOP and 1.090 [1.041-1.142] for FNIH), AWCU10 (0.990 [0.986-0.994]) and telomere length (0.998 [0.983-0.994]). The results indicated that MIP1b has a causal effect on hand grip strength (1.032 [1.001-1.063] for EWGSOP), AWCU10 (0.994 [0.988-1.000] and 0.993 [0.988-0.998]) and telomere length (1.006 [1.000-1.012]). PDGFbb may causally relate to AALM (1.016 [1.001-1.030]) and telomere length (1.011 [1.007-1.015]). Reserve MR analyses also proved their unidirectional causal effects. Twenty-seven factors were causally related to sarcopenia and aging traits, and the causal effects of IL16, CTACK, MIP1b and PDGFbb were proven in both analyses with two significance thresholds.

Associations between polygenic liability to psychopathology and non-suicidal versus suicidal self-injury.

Little is known about how non-suicidal and suicidal self-injury are differentially genetically related to psychopathology and related measures. This research was conducted using the UK Biobank Resource, in participants of European ancestry (N = 2320 non-suicidal self-injury [NSSI] only; N = 2648 suicide attempt; 69.18% female). We compared polygenic scores (PGS) for psychopathology and other relevant measures within self-injuring individuals. Logistic regressions and likelihood ratio tests (LRT) were used to identify PGS that were differentially associated with these outcomes. In a multivariable model, PGS for anorexia nervosa (odds ratio [OR] = 1.07; 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.01; 1.15) and suicidal behavior (OR = 1.06; 95% CI 1.00; 1.12) both differentiated between NSSI and suicide attempt, while the PGS for other phenotypes did not. The LRT between the multivariable and base models was significant (Chi square = 11.38, df = 2, p = 0.003), and the multivariable model explained a larger proportion of variance (Nagelkerke's pseudo-R2 = 0.028 vs. 0.025). While NSSI and suicidal behavior are similarly genetically related to a range of mental health and related outcomes, genetic liability to anorexia nervosa and suicidal behavior is higher among those reporting a suicide attempt than those reporting NSSI-only. Further elucidation of these distinctions is necessary, which will require a nuanced assessment of suicidal versus non-suicidal self-injury in large samples.

Systemic Inflammatory Regulators Associated with Osteoporosis: A Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Study.

To elucidate the precise upstream and downstream regulatory mechanisms of inflammatory factors in osteoporosis (OP) progression and to establish a causal relationship between inflammatory factors and OP. We conducted bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses using data for 41 cytokines obtained from three independent cohorts comprising 8293 Finnish individuals. Estimated bone mineral density (eBMD) data were derived from 426,824 UK Biobank White British individuals (55% female) and fracture data from 416,795 UK Biobank participants of European ancestry. The inverse variance-weighted method was the primary MR analysis approach. We employed other methods as complementary approaches for mutual corroboration. To test for pleiotropy and heterogeneity, we used the MR-Egger regression, MR-pleiotropy residual sum and outlier global test, and the Cochrane Q test. Macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α and interleukin (IL)-12p70 expression associated negatively and causally with eBMD (β = -0.017 [MIP-1α], β = -0.011 [IL-12p70]). Conversely, tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand was associated with a decreased risk of fractures (Odds Ratio: 0.980). Additionally, OP influenced the expression of multiple inflammatory factors, including growth-regulated oncogene-α, interferon-gamma, IL-6, beta nerve growth factor, and IL-2. Finally, we discovered complex bidirectional causal relationships between IL-8, IL-10, and OP. Specific inflammatory factors may contribute to OP development or may be causally affected by OP. We identified a bidirectional causal relationship between certain inflammatory factors and OP. These findings provide new perspectives for early prediction and targeted treatment of OP. Larger cohort studies are necessary in the future to further validate these findings.

Abstract 6151: Relationship between polygenic risk score, lifestyle factors, and colorectal cancer risk

Abstract Although heritable factors are estimated to explain up to 35% of colorectal cancers (CRC), most are diagnosed in people without a family history of CRC suggesting that inherited genetic variants, environmental factors, or a combination of both, contribute to CRC risk. We explored the relationship between a polygenic risk score (PRS) for CRC risk and lifestyle risk factors to understand whether individuals with higher genetic risk, who do not develop CRC, engage in healthier lifestyle behaviors, or conversely, whether those with lower genetic risk, who do develop CRC, engage in riskier behaviors in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial. Using summary statistics obtained from a large independent GWAS meta-analysis of CRC by the GECCO consortium, we developed a genome-wide PRS for CRC using SBayesR and applied it to participants of European ancestry genotyped in the PLCO Trial (n=74,396). For all subjects, we computed an environmental (E) score based on 19 lifestyle risk factors for CRC, a WCRF/AICR score that measured adherence to the 2018 Cancer Prevention recommendations, and a 2015 healthy eating index (HEI) with higher values indicating healthier lifestyle profiles. We used t-tests to evaluate differences in lifestyle scores between CRC-free participants in the highest quartile of PRS and incident CRC cases in the lowest quartile of PRS. To examine the correlations between the PRS and lifestyle scores, we performed multivariable linear regression models regressing PRS on each lifestyle score. We used multivariable Cox hazards regression models to compute hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for CRC risk; multiplicative interactions between PRS and lifestyle scores were evaluated using the Wald test for the interaction terms. During the 15 years follow-up period, a total of 1,052 CRC cases were diagnosed. Individuals in the highest quartile of PRS who remained cancer-free were more likely to engage in healthier behaviors than those in the lowest quartile of PRS who were diagnosed with incident CRC (E-score: -0.01 vs. -0.18, WCRF/AICR score: -0.05 vs. -0.32, HEI score: 0.06 vs. -0.13); however, differences were not statistically significant (P value: 0.1 to 0.4). PRS and lifestyle scores were significantly (all P &amp;lt;0.0001), albeit weakly (β: -0.02 to -0.03), associated among participants who remained CRC-free but not among CRC cases (P: 0.1 to 0.3). PRS-lifestyle score interactions were not statistically significant (P: 0.2 to 0.4). Although the differences and multiplicative interaction models were not statistically significant, we found that individuals with a higher PRS who remained CRC-free were slightly more likely to engage in healthier behaviors than those at a lower genetic score who developed CRC. Additional studies with larger sample size are warranted to further explore the interplay between genetic risk and lifestyle factors related to CRC risk. Citation Format: Wen-Yi Huang, Erikka Loftfield, Rebecca Landy, Difei Wang, Hormuzd A. Katki, Jianxin Shi, Lingxiao Wang, Mitchell J. Machiela, Neal D. Freedman, Sonja I. Berndt. Relationship between polygenic risk score, lifestyle factors, and colorectal cancer risk [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 6151.

Estimating causality between smoking and abdominal obesity by Mendelian randomization.

Smokers tend to have a lower body weight than non-smokers, but also more abdominal fat. It remains unclear whether or not the relationship between smoking and abdominal obesity is causal. Previous Mendelian randomization (MR) studies have investigated this relationship by relying upon a single genetic variant for smoking heaviness. This approach is sensitive to pleiotropic effects and may produce imprecise causal estimates. We aimed to estimate causality between smoking and abdominal obesity using multiple genetic instruments. MR study using causal analysis using summary effect estimates (CAUSE) and latent heritable confounder MR (LHC-MR) methods that instrument smoking using genome-wide data, and also two-sample MR (2SMR) methods. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics from participants of European ancestry, obtainedfrom the GWAS and Sequencing Consortium of Alcohol and Nicotine use (GSCAN), Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) Consortium and the UK Biobank. We used GWAS results for smoking initiation (n = 1 232 091), life-time smoking (n = 462 690) and smoking heaviness (n = 337 334) as exposure traits, and waist-hip ratio (WHR) and waist and hip circumferences (WC and HC) (n up to 697 734), with and without adjustment for body mass index (adjBMI), as outcome traits. Smoking initiation, life-time smoking, smoking heaviness, WHR, WC, HC, WHRadjBMI, WCadjBMI and HCadjBMI. Both CAUSE and LHC-MR indicated a positive causal effect of smoking initiation on WHR (0.13 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.10, 0.16 and 0.49 (0.41, 0.57), respectively] and WHRadjBMI (0.07 (0.03, 0.10) and 0.31 (0.26, 0.37). Similarly, they indicated a positive causal effect of life-time smoking on WHR [0.35 (0.29, 0.41) and 0.44 (0.38, 0.51)] and WHRadjBMI [0.18 (0.13, 0.24) and 0.26 (0.20, 0.31)]. In follow-up analyses, smoking particularly increased visceral fat. There was no evidence of a mediating role by cortisol or sex hormones. Smoking initiation and higher life-time smoking may lead to increased abdominal fat distribution. The increase in abdominal fat due to smoking is characterized by an increase in visceral fat. Thus, efforts to prevent and cease smoking can have the added benefit of reducing abdominal fat.

Integrative genomic analyses identify candidate causal genes for calcific aortic valve stenosis involving tissue-specific regulation.

There is currently no medical therapy to prevent calcific aortic valve stenosis (CAVS). Multi-omics approaches could lead to the identification of novel molecular targets. Here, we perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis including 14,819 cases among 941,863 participants of European ancestry. We report 32 genomic loci, among which 20 are novel. RNA sequencing of 500 human aortic valves highlights an enrichment in expression regulation at these loci and prioritizes candidate causal genes. Homozygous genotype for a risk variant near TWIST1, a gene involved in endothelial-mesenchymal transition, has a profound impact on aortic valve transcriptomics. We identify five genes outside of GWAS loci by combining a transcriptome-wide association study, colocalization, and Mendelian randomization analyses. Using cross-phenotype and phenome-wide approaches, we highlight the role of circulating lipoproteins, blood pressure and inflammation in the disease process. Our findings pave the way for the development of novel therapies for CAVS.

No evidence linking sleep traits with white blood cell counts: Multivariable-adjusted and Mendelian randomization analyses.

Disturbances in habitual sleep have been associated with multiple age-associated diseases. However, the biological mechanisms underpinning these associations remain largely unclear. We assessed the possible involvement of the circulating immune system by determining the associations between sleep traits and white blood cell counts using multivariable-adjusted linear regression and Mendelian randomization. Cross-sectional multivariable-adjusted linear regression analyses were done using participants within the normal range of total white blood cell counts (>4.5 × 109 and <11.0 × 109 /μL) from UK Biobank. For the sleep traits, we examined (short and long) sleep duration, chronotype, insomnia symptoms and daytime dozing. Two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses were done using instruments for sleep traits derived from European-ancestry participants from UK Biobank (over 410,000 participants) and using SNP-outcome data derived from European-ancestry participants from the Blood Cell Consortium (N = 563,946) to which no data from UK Biobank contributed. Using data from 357,656 participants (mean [standard deviation] age: 56.5 [8.1] years, and 44.4% men), we did not find evidence that disturbances in any of the studied sleep traits were associated with differences in blood cell counts (total, lymphocytes, neutrophiles, eosinophiles and basophiles). Also, we did not find associations between disturbances in any of the studied sleep traits and white blood cell counts using Mendelian Randomization. Based on the results from two different methodologies, disturbances in habitual sleep are unlikely to cause changes in blood cell counts and thereby differences in blood cell counts are unlikely to be underlying the observed sleep-disease associations.

Abstract PR001: Highlighting the combined effects of BMI and polygenic risk score on endometrial cancer risk

Abstract Obesity is more strongly associated with endometrial cancer risk than any other cancer type. However, the extent to which genetic susceptibility influences the risk of endometrial cancer independent of obesity remains unknown. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the predictive performance of polygenic risk score (PRS), body mass index (BMI) and other factors in determining endometrial cancer risk, as well as to explore joint effects on endometrial cancer. PRS was generated using 1.1 million HapMap3 variants from the largest published endometrial cancer genome-wide association study. An endometrial cancer prediction model was constructed using established endometrial cancer risk factors (age, BMI, number of live births, ever taken oral contraceptive pill, age of menarche, and predicted age of menopause). Additionally, an integrated prediction model was constructed, combining the endometrial cancer PRS with established risk factors. The ability of models to predict endometrial cancer status was assessed in unrelated participants of European ancestry from the UK Biobank cohort, encompassing 1,867 participants with endometrial cancer (860 incident cases) and 133,322 cancer-free controls. The integrated model including PRS and risk factors had a modest yet statistically significant improvement in prediction of endometrial cancer status, compared with the model using risk factors alone (AUC 0.752 versus 0.741; P = 1.28 × 10−7). When examining incident cases, participants in the middle and top tertiles of the PRS distribution had a 1.96- (95% CI 1.39-2.77; P = 1.28 × 10−4) and 3.03-fold (95% CI 2.01-4.58; P = 1.60 × 10−8) elevated risk of developing endometrial cancer, respectively, in contrast to those in the lowest tertile. As expected, elevated BMI was associated with increased endometrial cancer risk. Compared to participants with a normal BMI, overweight participants (25kg/m2 ≤ BMI &amp;lt; 30kg/m2) had a 1.58-fold increased hazard ratio (HR; 95% CI 1.32-1.90; P = 8.43 × 10−7), while obese participants (BMI ≥ 30kg/m2) a 3.23-fold increased HR (95% CI 2.71-3.85; P &amp;lt; 2.00 × 10−16). Notably, we observed multiplying effects of BMI and PRS on endometrial cancer risk, with obese participants in the top tertile of the PRS distribution having a 7.53-fold increased HR (95% CI 3.78-14.99; P = 9.41 × 10−9). In summary, these findings indicate that higher PRS was associated with endometrial cancer risk, irrespective of BMI. Moreover, the integration of PRS with established risk factors may aid in better stratifying the general population for their susceptibility to endometrial cancer. Citation Format: Tracy A. O'Mara, Xuemin Wang, Laure Dossus, Marc J. Gunter, Emma J. Crosbie, Dylan M. Glubb. Highlighting the combined effects of BMI and polygenic risk score on endometrial cancer risk [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Endometrial Cancer: Transforming Care through Science; 2023 Nov 16-18; Boston, Massachusetts. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2024;30(5_Suppl):Abstract nr PR001.

Serum fetuin-a and risk of thoracic aortic aneurysms: a two-sample mendelian randomization study.

Recent studies have revealed a significant decrease in serum fetuin-A levels in atherosclerotic aneurysms, indicating that fetuin-A may play a protective role in the progression of arterial calcification. However, the specific mechanism behind this phenomenon remains unclear. We aimed to examine the association between fetuin-A levels in thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) and risk of TAAs and to evaluate whether this association was causal. A total of 26 SNPs were selected as instrumental variables for fetuin-A in 9,055 participants of European ancestry from the CHARGE consortium, and their effects on thoracic aortic aneurysm and decreased descending thoracic aortic diameter were separately estimated in 353,049 and 39,688 individuals from FinnGen consortium. We used two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to examine the causal association. At the same time, we employed various methods, including random-effects inverse variance weighting, weighted median, MR Egger regression, and MR PRESSO, to ensure the robustness of causal effects. We assessed heterogeneity using Cochran's Q value and examined horizontal pleiotropy through MR Egger regression and retention analysis. Fetuin-A level was associated with a significantly decreasing risk of thoracic aortic aneurysm (odds ratio (OR) 0.64, 95% CI 0.47 - 0.87, P = 0.0044). Genetically predicted fetuin-A was also correlated with the decreased descending thoracic aortic diameter (β = -0.086, standard error (SE) 0.036, P = 0.017). Serum fetuin-A level was negatively associated with risk of TTAs and correlated with the decreased descending thoracic aortic diameter. Mendelian randomization provides support for the potential causal relationship between fetuin-A and thoracic aortic aneurysm.

Exploring causal correlations between circulating levels of cytokines and colorectal cancer risk: A Mendelian randomization analysis.

Colorectal cancer has the highest mortality rate of all digestive system diseases. Considering the debate about cytokines and biases that exist in traditional observational study designs, we performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to explore the association of circulating cytokines with CRC risk. In this study, we used cytokine genetic variants from a recently published genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 14,824 European-ancestry participants. Summary-level data for colorectal cancer were obtained from genome-wide association analyses of the FinnGen consortium. In addition, we conducted independent supplementary analyses using genetic variation data of colorectal cancer and cytokines from a large public GWAS in 2021. Among 91 circulating factors, we only found IL-12B to be significantly associated with CRC risk (odds ratio [OR]: 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.00-1.42; p = .046). We used 2021 data for analysis and found that higher Interleukin-12p70 levels (IL-12p70) were revealed to have a significant positive association with CRC risk (OR: 1.27; 95% CI: 1.13-1.43; p < 1.22 × 10-3 ). Moreover, CRC was suggestively correlated with an elevated level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (OR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.02-1.35; p = .026), macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) (OR: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.76-0.96; p = .005), IL-13 (OR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.02-1.30; p = .028), IL-10 (OR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.01-1.49; p = .037), and IL-7 (OR: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.02-1.39; p = .024). Our MR studies support that one cytokine IL-12 is significantly associated with CRC risk and that five cytokines VEGF, M-CSF, IL-13, IL-10, and IL-7 are associated with CRC risk.

Genomic data in the All of Us Research Program

Comprehensively mapping the genetic basis of human disease across diverse individuals is a long-standing goal for the field of human genetics1–4. The All of Us Research Program is a longitudinal cohort study aiming to enrol a diverse group of at least one million individuals across the USA to accelerate biomedical research and improve human health5,6. Here we describe the programme’s genomics data release of 245,388 clinical-grade genome sequences. This resource is unique in its diversity as 77% of participants are from communities that are historically under-represented in biomedical research and 46% are individuals from under-represented racial and ethnic minorities. All of Us identified more than 1 billion genetic variants, including more than 275 million previously unreported genetic variants, more than 3.9 million of which had coding consequences. Leveraging linkage between genomic data and the longitudinal electronic health record, we evaluated 3,724 genetic variants associated with 117 diseases and found high replication rates across both participants of European ancestry and participants of African ancestry. Summary-level data are publicly available, and individual-level data can be accessed by researchers through the All of Us Researcher Workbench using a unique data passport model with a median time from initial researcher registration to data access of 29 hours. We anticipate that this diverse dataset will advance the promise of genomic medicine for all.

APOE ε4 and Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Patients With Brain Arteriovenous Malformation

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a serious complication of brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 is a well-known genetic risk factor for ICH among persons without AVM, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy is a vasculopathy frequently observed in APOE ε4 carriers that may increase the risk of ICH. To assess whether APOE ε4 is associated with a higher risk of ICH in patients with a known AVM. This cross-sectional study including 412 participants was conducted in 2 stages (discovery and replication) using individual-level data from the UK Biobank (released March 2012 and last updated October 2023) and the All of Us Research Program (commenced on May 6, 2018, with its latest update provided in October 2023). The occurrence of AVM and ICH was ascertained at the time of enrollment using validated International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision and Tenth Revision, codes. Genotypic data on the APOE variants rs429358 and rs7412 were used to ascertain the ε status. For each study, the association between APOE ε4 variants and ICH risk was assessed among patients with a known AVM by using multivariable logistic regression. The discovery phase included 253 UK Biobank participants with known AVM (mean [SD] age, 56.6 [8.0] years, 119 [47.0%] female), of whom 63 (24.9%) sustained an ICH. In the multivariable analysis of 240 participants of European ancestry, APOE ε4 was associated with a higher risk of ICH (odds ratio, 4.58; 95% CI, 2.13-10.34; P < .001). The replication phase included 159 participants with known AVM enrolled in All of Us (mean [SD] age, 57.1 [15.9] years; 106 [66.7%] female), of whom 29 (18.2%) sustained an ICH. In multivariable analysis of 101 participants of European ancestry, APOE ε4 was associated with higher risk of ICH (odds ratio, 4.52; 95% CI, 1.18-19.38; P = .03). The results of this cross-sectional study of patients from the UK Biobank and All of Us suggest that information on APOE ε4 status may help identify patients with brain AVM who are at particularly high risk of ICH and that cerebral amyloid angiopathy should be evaluated as a possible mediating mechanism of the observed association.

The causal effects of genetically predicted alcohol consumption on endometrial cancer risk from a Mendelian randomization study

Endometrial cancer (EC) is a common gynecological tumor in females with an increasing incidence over the past few decades. Alcohol consumption has been linked to the occurrence of various cancers; However, epidemiological studies have shown inconsistent associations between alcohol consumption and EC risk. In order to avoid the influence of potential confounding factors and reverse causality in traditional epidemiological studies, we used a method based on genetic principles-Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to test whether there is a causal relationship between alcohol consumption and EC. MR analysis was conducted using publicly available summary-level data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Fifty-seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were extracted as instrumental variables for alcohol exposure from the GWAS and Sequencing Consortium of Alcohol and Nicotine GWAS summary data involving 941,287 participants of European ancestry. SNPs for EC were obtained from the Endometrial Cancer Association Consortium, the Endometrial Cancer Epidemiology Consortium, and the UK Biobank, involving 121,885 European participants. The inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was used as the primary method to estimate the causal effect, and the MR-Egger regression and weighted median method were used as supplementary methods. Sensitivity analyses were conducted using the Mendelian Randomization Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier global test, MR-Egger intercept test, and leave-one-out analysis to evaluate the impact of pleiotropy on causal estimates. An increase of 1 standard deviation of genetically predicted log-transformed alcoholic drinks per day was associated with a 43% reduction in EC risk [odds ratio (OR) = 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.41–0.79, P < 0.001]. Subgroup analysis of EC revealed that alcohol consumption was a protective factor for endometrioid endometrial cancer (EEC) (OR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.38–0.83, P = 0.004) but not for non-endometrioid endometrial cancer (NEC) (OR = 1.36, 95% CI 0.40–4.66, P = 0.626). The MR-Egger regression and weighted median method yielded consistent causal effects with the IVW method. The consistent results of sensitivity analyses indicated the reliability of our causal estimates. Additionally, alcohol consumption was associated with decreased human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) levels. This MR study suggests that genetically predicted alcohol consumption is a protective factor for EC, particularly for EEC, and this protective effect may be mediated through the reduction of HCG and IGF1.

Exploring causality between bone mineral density and frailty: A bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.

The bidirectional correlation between low bone mineral density (BMD) and frailty, despite its extensive documentation, still lacks a conclusive understanding. The objective of this Mendelian randomization (MR) study is to investigate the bidirectional causal relationship between BMD and frailty. We utilized summary statistics data for BMD at different skeletal sites-including heel BMD (e-BMD, N = 40,613), forearm BMD (FA-BMD, N = 8,143), femoral neck BMD (FN-BMD, N = 32,735), and lumbar spine BMD (LS-BMD, N = 28,489), alongside frailty index (FI, N = 175,226) data in participants of European ancestry. MR analysis in our study was conducted using well-established analytical methods, including inverse variance weighted (IVW), weighted median (WM), and MR-Egger approaches. We observed negative causal estimates between genetically predicted e-BMD (IVW β = - 0.020, 95% confidence interval (CI) = - 0.038, - 0.002, P = 0.029) and FA-BMD (IVW β = -0.035, 95% CI = -0.066, -0.004, P = 0.028) with FI. However, the results did not reach statistical significance after applying the Bonferroni correction, with a significance threshold set at P < 0.0125 (0.05/4). There was no causal effect of FN-BMD (IVW β = - 0.024, 95% CI = -0.052, 0.004, P = 0.088) and LS-BMD (IVW β = - 0.005, 95% CI = -0.034, 0.024, P = 0.749) on FI. In the reverse Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis, we observed no causal effect of FI on BMD at various skeletal sites. Our study provides support for the hypothesis that low BMD may be a potential causal risk factor for frailty, but further research is needed to confirm this relationship. However, our findings did not confirm reverse causality.