Causal associations between risk factors and common diseases inferred from GWAS summary data
Zhu Z, Zheng Z, Zhang F, Wu Y, Trzaskowski M, Maier R, Robinson MR, McGrath JJ, Visscher PM, Wray NR, Yang J. 2018. Causal associations between risk factors and common diseases inferred from GWAS summary data. Nature Communications. 9, 224.
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Journal Article
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Author
Zhu, Zhihong;
Zheng, Zhili;
Zhang, Futao;
Wu, Yang;
Trzaskowski, Maciej;
Maier, Robert;
Robinson, Matthew RichardISTA 
;
McGrath, John J.;
Visscher, Peter M.;
Wray, Naomi R.;
Yang, Jian
;
McGrath, John J.;
Visscher, Peter M.;
Wray, Naomi R.;
Yang, JianAbstract
Health risk factors such as body mass index (BMI) and serum cholesterol are associated with many common diseases. It often remains unclear whether the risk factors are cause or consequence of disease, or whether the associations are the result of confounding. We develop and apply a method (called GSMR) that performs a multi-SNP Mendelian randomization analysis using summary-level data from genome-wide association studies to test the causal associations of BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, serum cholesterols, blood pressures, height, and years of schooling (EduYears) with common diseases (sample sizes of up to 405,072). We identify a number of causal associations including a protective effect of LDL-cholesterol against type-2 diabetes (T2D) that might explain the side effects of statins on T2D, a protective effect of EduYears against Alzheimer’s disease, and bidirectional associations with opposite effects (e.g., higher BMI increases the risk of T2D but the effect of T2D on BMI is negative).
Publishing Year
Date Published
2018-01-15
Journal Title
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Nature
Volume
9
Article Number
224
ISSN
IST-REx-ID
Cite this
Zhu Z, Zheng Z, Zhang F, et al. Causal associations between risk factors and common diseases inferred from GWAS summary data. Nature Communications. 2018;9. doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02317-2
Zhu, Z., Zheng, Z., Zhang, F., Wu, Y., Trzaskowski, M., Maier, R., … Yang, J. (2018). Causal associations between risk factors and common diseases inferred from GWAS summary data. Nature Communications. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02317-2
Zhu, Zhihong, Zhili Zheng, Futao Zhang, Yang Wu, Maciej Trzaskowski, Robert Maier, Matthew Richard Robinson, et al. “Causal Associations between Risk Factors and Common Diseases Inferred from GWAS Summary Data.” Nature Communications. Springer Nature, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02317-2.
Z. Zhu et al., “Causal associations between risk factors and common diseases inferred from GWAS summary data,” Nature Communications, vol. 9. Springer Nature, 2018.
Zhu Z, Zheng Z, Zhang F, Wu Y, Trzaskowski M, Maier R, Robinson MR, McGrath JJ, Visscher PM, Wray NR, Yang J. 2018. Causal associations between risk factors and common diseases inferred from GWAS summary data. Nature Communications. 9, 224.
Zhu, Zhihong, et al. “Causal Associations between Risk Factors and Common Diseases Inferred from GWAS Summary Data.” Nature Communications, vol. 9, 224, Springer Nature, 2018, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02317-2.
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