A unified framework identifies new links between plasma lipids and diseases from electronic medical records across large-scale cohorts

Yogasudha Veturi, Anastasia Lucas, Yuki Bradford, Daniel Hui, Scott Dudek, Elizabeth Theusch, Anurag Verma, Jason E. Miller, Iftikhar Kullo, Hakon Hakonarson, Patrick Sleiman, Daniel Schaid, Charles M. Stein, Digna R.Velez Edwards, Qi Ping Feng, Wei Qi Wei, Marisa W. Medina, Ronald M. Krauss, Thomas J. Hoffmann, Neil RischBenjamin F. Voight, Daniel J. Rader, Marylyn D. Ritchie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Plasma lipids are known heritable risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but increasing evidence also supports shared genetics with diseases of other organ systems. We devised a comprehensive three-phase framework to identify new lipid-associated genes and study the relationships among lipids, genotypes, gene expression and hundreds of complex human diseases from the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (347 traits) and the UK Biobank (549 traits). Aside from 67 new lipid-associated genes with strong replication, we found evidence for pleiotropic SNPs/genes between lipids and diseases across the phenome. These include discordant pleiotropy in the HLA region between lipids and multiple sclerosis and putative causal paths between triglycerides and gout, among several others. Our findings give insights into the genetic basis of the relationship between plasma lipids and diseases on a phenome-wide scale and can provide context for future prevention and treatment strategies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)972-981
Number of pages10
JournalNature Genetics
Volume53
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Genetics

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