Metabolome-wide association study on ABCA7 indicates a role of ceramide metabolism in Alzheimer's disease.

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified genetic loci associated with the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the molecular mechanisms by which they confer risk are largely unknown. We conducted a metabolome-wide association study (MWAS) of AD-associated loci from GWASs using untargeted metabolic profiling (metabolomics) by ultraperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). We identified an association of lactosylceramides (LacCer) with AD-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ABCA7 (P = 5.0 × 10-5 to 1.3 × 10-44). We showed that plasma LacCer concentrations are associated with cognitive performance and genetically modified levels of LacCer are associated with AD risk. We then showed that concentrations of sphingomyelins, ceramides, and hexosylceramides were altered in brain tissue from Abca7 knockout mice, compared with wild type (WT) (P = 0.049-1.4 × 10-5), but not in a mouse model of amyloidosis. Furthermore, activation of microglia increases intracellular concentrations of hexosylceramides in part through induction in the expression of sphingosine kinase, an enzyme with a high control coefficient for sphingolipid and ceramide synthesis. Our work suggests that the risk for AD arising from functional variations in ABCA7 is mediated at least in part through ceramides. Modulation of their metabolism or downstream signaling may offer new therapeutic opportunities for AD.

Whole-exome sequencing of 14 389 individuals from the ESP and CHARGE consortia identifies novel rare variation associated with hemostatic factors.

Plasma levels of fibrinogen, coagulation factors VII and VIII and von Willebrand factor (vWF) are four intermediate phenotypes that are heritable and have been associated with the risk of clinical thrombotic events. To identify rare and low-frequency variants associated with these hemostatic factors, we conducted whole-exome sequencing in 10 860 individuals of European ancestry (EA) and 3529 African Americans (AAs) from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Exome Sequencing Project. Gene-based tests demonstrated significant associations with rare variation (minor allele frequency < 5%) in fibrinogen gamma chain (FGG) (with fibrinogen, P = 9.1 × 10-13), coagulation factor VII (F7) (with factor VII, P = 1.3 × 10-72; seven novel variants) and VWF (with factor VIII and vWF; P = 3.2 × 10-14; one novel variant). These eight novel rare variant associations were independent of the known common variants at these loci and tended to have much larger effect sizes. In addition, one of the rare novel variants in F7 was significantly associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism in AAs (Ile200Ser; rs141219108; P = 4.2 × 10-5). After restricting gene-based analyses to only loss-of-function variants, a novel significant association was detected and replicated between factor VIII levels and a stop-gain mutation exclusive to AAs (rs3211938) in CD36 molecule (CD36). This variant has previously been linked to dyslipidemia but not with the levels of a hemostatic factor. These efforts represent the largest integration of whole-exome sequence data from two national projects to identify genetic variation associated with plasma hemostatic factors.

Associations of carotid intima media thickness with gene expression in whole blood and genetically predicted gene expression across 48 tissues.

Carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) is a biomarker of subclinical atherosclerosis and a predictor of future cardiovascular events. Identifying associations between gene expression levels and cIMT may provide insight to atherosclerosis etiology. Here, we use two approaches to identify associations between mRNA levels and cIMT: differential gene expression analysis in whole blood and S-PrediXcan. We used microarrays to measure genome-wide whole blood mRNA levels of 5647 European individuals from four studies. We examined the association of mRNA levels with cIMT adjusted for various potential confounders. Significant associations were tested for replication in three studies totaling 3943 participants. Next, we applied S-PrediXcan to summary statistics from a cIMT genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 71 128 individuals to estimate the association between genetically determined mRNA levels and cIMT and replicated these analyses using S-PrediXcan on an independent GWAS on cIMT that included 22 179 individuals from the UK Biobank. mRNA levels of TNFAIP3, CEBPD and METRNL were inversely associated with cIMT, but these associations were not significant in the replication analysis. S-PrediXcan identified associations between cIMT and genetically determined mRNA levels for 36 genes, of which six were significant in the replication analysis, including TLN2, which had not been previously reported for cIMT. There was weak correlation between our results using differential gene expression analysis and S-PrediXcan. Differential expression analysis and S-PrediXcan represent complementary approaches for the discovery of associations between phenotypes and gene expression. Using these approaches, we prioritize TNFAIP3, CEBPD, METRNL and TLN2 as new candidate genes whose differential expression might modulate cIMT.

Genetic and clinical determinants of abdominal aortic diameter: genome-wide association studies, exome array data and Mendelian randomization study.

Progressive dilation of the infrarenal aortic diameter is a consequence of the ageing process and is considered the main determinant of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). We aimed to investigate the genetic and clinical determinants of abdominal aortic diameter (AAD). We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in 10 cohorts (n = 13 542) imputed to the 1000 Genome Project reference panel including 12 815 subjects in the discovery phase and 727 subjects [Partners Biobank cohort 1 (PBIO)] as replication. Maximum anterior-posterior diameter of the infrarenal aorta was used as AAD. We also included exome array data (n = 14 480) from seven epidemiologic studies. Single-variant and gene-based associations were done using SeqMeta package. A Mendelian randomization analysis was applied to investigate the causal effect of a number of clinical risk factors on AAD. In genome-wide association study (GWAS) on AAD, rs74448815 in the intronic region of LDLRAD4 reached genome-wide significance (beta = -0.02, SE = 0.004, P-value = 2.10 × 10-8). The association replicated in the PBIO1 cohort (P-value = 8.19 × 10-4). In exome-array single-variant analysis (P-value threshold = 9 × 10-7), the lowest P-value was found for rs239259 located in SLC22A20 (beta = 0.007, P-value = 1.2 × 10-5). In the gene-based analysis (P-value threshold = 1.85 × 10-6), PCSK5 showed an association with AAD (P-value = 8.03 × 10-7). Furthermore, in Mendelian randomization analyses, we found evidence for genetic association of pulse pressure (beta = -0.003, P-value = 0.02), triglycerides (beta = -0.16, P-value = 0.008) and height (beta = 0.03, P-value < 0.0001), known risk factors for AAA, consistent with a causal association with AAD. Our findings point to new biology as well as highlighting gene regions in mechanisms that have previously been implicated in the genetics of other vascular diseases.

Phenome-wide association study on miRNA-related sequence variants: the UK Biobank.

BACKGROUND: Genetic variants in the coding region could directly affect the structure and expression levels of genes and proteins. However, the importance of variants in the non-coding region, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), remain to be elucidated. Genetic variants in miRNA-related sequences could affect their biogenesis or functionality and ultimately affect disease risk. Yet, their implications and pleiotropic effects on many clinical conditions remain unknown. METHODS: Here, we utilised genotyping and hospital records data in the UK Biobank (N = 423,419) to investigate associations between 346 genetic variants in miRNA-related sequences and a wide range of clinical diagnoses through phenome-wide association studies. Further, we tested whether changes in blood miRNA expression levels could affect disease risk through colocalisation and Mendelian randomisation analysis. RESULTS: We identified 122 associations for six variants in the seed region of miRNAs, nine variants in the mature region of miRNAs, and 27 variants in the precursor miRNAs. These included associations with hypertension, dyslipidaemia, immune-related disorders, and others. Nineteen miRNAs were associated with multiple diagnoses, with six of them associated with multiple disease categories. The strongest association was reported between rs4285314 in the precursor of miR-3135b and celiac disease risk (odds ratio (OR) per effect allele increase = 0.37, P = 1.8 × 10-162). Colocalisation and Mendelian randomisation analysis highlighted potential causal role of miR-6891-3p in dyslipidaemia. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates the pleiotropic effect of miRNAs and offers insights to their possible clinical importance.

Pathway-based integration of multi-omics data reveals lipidomics alterations validated in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model and risk loci carriers.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a highly prevalent neurodegenerative disorder. Despite increasing evidence of the importance of metabolic dysregulation in AD, the underlying metabolic changes that may impact amyloid plaque formation are not understood, particularly for late-onset AD. This study analyzed genome-wide association studies (GWAS), transcriptomics, and proteomics data obtained from several data repositories to obtain differentially expressed (DE) multi-omics elements in mouse models of AD. We characterized the metabolic modulation in these data sets using gene ontology, transcription factor, pathway, and cell-type enrichment analyses. A predicted lipid signature was extracted from genome-scale metabolic networks (GSMN) and subsequently validated in a lipidomic data set derived from cortical tissue of ABCA-7 null mice, a mouse model of one of the genes associated with late-onset AD. Moreover, a metabolome-wide association study (MWAS) was performed to further characterize the association between dysregulated lipid metabolism in human blood serum and genes associated with AD risk. We found 203 DE transcripts, 164 DE proteins, and 58 DE GWAS-derived mouse orthologs associated with significantly enriched metabolic biological processes. Lipid and bioenergetic metabolic pathways were significantly over-represented across the AD multi-omics data sets. Microglia and astrocytes were significantly enriched in the lipid-predominant AD-metabolic transcriptome. We also extracted a predicted lipid signature that was validated and robustly modeled class separation in the ABCA7 mice cortical lipidome, with 11 of these lipid species exhibiting statistically significant modulations. MWAS revealed 298 AD single nucleotide polymorphisms-metabolite associations, of which 70% corresponded to lipid classes. These results support the importance of lipid metabolism dysregulation in AD and highlight the suitability of mapping AD multi-omics data into GSMNs to identify metabolic alterations.

Epigenome-wide association study of body mass index, and the adverse outcomes of adiposity.

Approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide are overweight or affected by obesity, and are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and related metabolic and inflammatory disturbances. Although the mechanisms linking adiposity to associated clinical conditions are poorly understood, recent studies suggest that adiposity may influence DNA methylation, a key regulator of gene expression and molecular phenotype. Here we use epigenome-wide association to show that body mass index (BMI; a key measure of adiposity) is associated with widespread changes in DNA methylation (187 genetic loci with P < 1 × 10-7, range P = 9.2 × 10-8 to 6.0 × 10-46; n = 10,261 samples). Genetic association analyses demonstrate that the alterations in DNA methylation are predominantly the consequence of adiposity, rather than the cause. We find that methylation loci are enriched for functional genomic features in multiple tissues (P < 0.05), and show that sentinel methylation markers identify gene expression signatures at 38 loci (P < 9.0 × 10-6, range P = 5.5 × 10-6 to 6.1 × 10-35, n = 1,785 samples). The methylation loci identify genes involved in lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, substrate transport and inflammatory pathways. Finally, we show that the disturbances in DNA methylation predict future development of type 2 diabetes (relative risk per 1 standard deviation increase in methylation risk score: 2.3 (2.07-2.56); P = 1.1 × 10-54). Our results provide new insights into the biologic pathways influenced by adiposity, and may enable development of new strategies for prediction and prevention of type 2 diabetes and other adverse clinical consequences of obesity.

Associations of genetically predicted fatty acid levels across the phenome: A mendelian randomisation study.

BACKGROUND: Fatty acids are important dietary factors that have been extensively studied for their implication in health and disease. Evidence from epidemiological studies and randomised controlled trials on their role in cardiovascular, inflammatory, and other diseases remains inconsistent. The objective of this study was to assess whether genetically predicted fatty acid concentrations affect the risk of disease across a wide variety of clinical health outcomes. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The UK Biobank (UKB) is a large study involving over 500,000 participants aged 40 to 69 years at recruitment from 2006 to 2010. We used summary-level data for 117,143 UKB samples (base dataset), to extract genetic associations of fatty acids, and individual-level data for 322,232 UKB participants (target dataset) to conduct our discovery analysis. We studied potentially causal relationships of circulating fatty acids with 845 clinical diagnoses, using mendelian randomisation (MR) approach, within a phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) framework. Regression models in PheWAS were adjusted for sex, age, and the first 10 genetic principal components. External summary statistics were used for replication. When several fatty acids were associated with a health outcome, multivariable MR and MR-Bayesian method averaging (MR-BMA) was applied to disentangle their causal role. Genetic predisposition to higher docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was associated with cholelithiasis and cholecystitis (odds ratio per mmol/L: 0.76, 95% confidence interval: 0.66 to 0.87). This was supported in replication analysis (FinnGen study) and by the genetically predicted omega-3 fatty acids analyses. Genetically predicted linoleic acid (LA), omega-6, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and total fatty acids (total FAs) showed positive associations with cardiovascular outcomes with support from replication analysis. Finally, higher genetically predicted levels of DHA (0.83, 0.73 to 0.95) and omega-3 (0.83, 0.75 to 0.92) were found to have a protective effect on obesity, which was supported using body mass index (BMI) in the GIANT consortium as replication analysis. Multivariable MR analysis suggested a direct detrimental effect of LA (1.64, 1.07 to 2.50) and omega-6 fatty acids (1.81, 1.06 to 3.09) on coronary heart disease (CHD). MR-BMA prioritised LA and omega-6 fatty acids as the top risk factors for CHD. Although we present a range of sensitivity analyses to the address MR assumptions, horizontal pleiotropy may still bias the reported associations and further evaluation in clinical trials is needed. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests potentially protective effects of circulating DHA and omega-3 concentrations on cholelithiasis and cholecystitis and on obesity, highlighting the need to further assess them as prevention treatments in clinical trials. Moreover, our findings do not support the supplementation of unsaturated fatty acids for cardiovascular disease prevention.

Blood pressure lowering and risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes: an individual participant data meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Blood pressure lowering is an established strategy for preventing microvascular and macrovascular complications of diabetes, but its role in the prevention of diabetes itself is unclear. We aimed to examine this question using individual participant data from major randomised controlled trials. METHODS: We performed a one-stage individual participant data meta-analysis, in which data were pooled to investigate the effect of blood pressure lowering per se on the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes. An individual participant data network meta-analysis was used to investigate the differential effects of five major classes of antihypertensive drugs on the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes. Overall, data from 22 studies conducted between 1973 and 2008, were obtained by the Blood Pressure Lowering Treatment Trialists' Collaboration (Oxford University, Oxford, UK). We included all primary and secondary prevention trials that used a specific class or classes of antihypertensive drugs versus placebo or other classes of blood pressure lowering medications that had at least 1000 persons-years of follow-up in each randomly allocated arm. Participants with a known diagnosis of diabetes at baseline and trials conducted in patients with prevalent diabetes were excluded. For the one-stage individual participant data meta-analysis we used stratified Cox proportional hazards model and for the individual participant data network meta-analysis we used logistic regression models to calculate the relative risk (RR) for drug class comparisons. FINDINGS: 145 939 participants (88 500 [60·6%] men and 57 429 [39·4%] women) from 19 randomised controlled trials were included in the one-stage individual participant data meta-analysis. 22 trials were included in the individual participant data network meta-analysis. After a median follow-up of 4·5 years (IQR 2·0), 9883 participants were diagnosed with new-onset type 2 diabetes. Systolic blood pressure reduction by 5 mm Hg reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes across all trials by 11% (hazard ratio 0·89 [95% CI 0·84-0·95]). Investigation of the effects of five major classes of antihypertensive drugs showed that in comparison to placebo, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (RR 0·84 [95% 0·76-0·93]) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (RR 0·84 [0·76-0·92]) reduced the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes; however, the use of ß blockers (RR 1·48 [1·27-1·72]) and thiazide diuretics (RR 1·20 [1·07-1·35]) increased this risk, and no material effect was found for calcium channel blockers (RR 1·02 [0·92-1·13]). INTERPRETATION: Blood pressure lowering is an effective strategy for the prevention of new-onset type 2 diabetes. Established pharmacological interventions, however, have qualitatively and quantitively different effects on diabetes, likely due to their differing off-target effects, with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers having the most favourable outcomes. This evidence supports the indication for selected classes of antihypertensive drugs for the prevention of diabetes, which could further refine the selection of drug choice according to an individual's clinical risk of diabetes. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, and Oxford Martin School.

Finding Correspondence between Metabolomic Features in Untargeted Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Metabolomics Datasets.

Integration of multiple datasets can greatly enhance bioanalytical studies, for example, by increasing power to discover and validate biomarkers. In liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomics, it is especially hard to combine untargeted datasets since the majority of metabolomic features are not annotated and thus cannot be matched by chemical identity. Typically, the information available for each feature is retention time (RT), mass-to-charge ratio (m/z), and feature intensity (FI). Pairs of features from the same metabolite in separate datasets can exhibit small but significant differences, making matching very challenging. Current methods to address this issue are too simple or rely on assumptions that cannot be met in all cases. We present a method to find feature correspondence between two similar LC-MS metabolomics experiments or batches using only the features' RT, m/z, and FI. We demonstrate the method on both real and synthetic datasets, using six orthogonal validation strategies to gauge the matching quality. In our main example, 4953 features were uniquely matched, of which 585 (96.8%) of 604 manually annotated features were correct. In a second example, 2324 features could be uniquely matched, with 79 (90.8%) out of 87 annotated features correctly matched. Most of the missed annotated matches are between features that behave very differently from modeled inter-dataset shifts of RT, MZ, and FI. In a third example with simulated data with 4755 features per dataset, 99.6% of the matches were correct. Finally, the results of matching three other dataset pairs using our method are compared with a published alternative method, metabCombiner, showing the advantages of our approach. The method can be applied using M2S (Match 2 Sets), a free, open-source MATLAB toolbox, available at https://github.com/rjdossan/M2S.

Exploring the causal effect of maternal pregnancy adiposity on offspring adiposity: Mendelian randomisation using polygenic risk scores.

BACKGROUND: Greater maternal adiposity before or during pregnancy is associated with greater offspring adiposity throughout childhood, but the extent to which this is due to causal intrauterine or periconceptional mechanisms remains unclear. Here, we use Mendelian randomisation (MR) with polygenic risk scores (PRS) to investigate whether associations between maternal pre-/early pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and offspring adiposity from birth to adolescence are causal. METHODS: We undertook confounder adjusted multivariable (MV) regression and MR using mother-offspring pairs from two UK cohorts: Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and Born in Bradford (BiB). In ALSPAC and BiB, the outcomes were birthweight (BW; N = 9339) and BMI at age 1 and 4 years (N = 8659 to 7575). In ALSPAC only we investigated BMI at 10 and 15 years (N = 4476 to 4112) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) determined fat mass index (FMI) from age 10-18 years (N = 2659 to 3855). We compared MR results from several PRS, calculated from maternal non-transmitted alleles at between 29 and 80,939 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). RESULTS: MV and MR consistently showed a positive association between maternal BMI and BW, supporting a moderate causal effect. For adiposity at most older ages, although MV estimates indicated a strong positive association, MR estimates did not support a causal effect. For the PRS with few SNPs, MR estimates were statistically consistent with the null, but had wide confidence intervals so were often also statistically consistent with the MV estimates. In contrast, the largest PRS yielded MR estimates with narrower confidence intervals, providing strong evidence that the true causal effect on adolescent adiposity is smaller than the MV estimates (Pdifference = 0.001 for 15-year BMI). This suggests that the MV estimates are affected by residual confounding, therefore do not provide an accurate indication of the causal effect size. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that higher maternal pre-/early-pregnancy BMI is not a key driver of higher adiposity in the next generation. Thus, they support interventions that target the whole population for reducing overweight and obesity, rather than a specific focus on women of reproductive age.

Circulating inflammatory cytokines and risk of five cancers: a Mendelian randomization analysis.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological and experimental evidence has linked chronic inflammation to cancer aetiology. It is unclear whether associations for specific inflammatory biomarkers are causal or due to bias. In order to examine whether altered genetically predicted concentration of circulating cytokines are associated with cancer development, we performed a two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis. METHODS: Up to 31,112 individuals of European descent were included in genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses of 47 circulating cytokines. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) robustly associated with the cytokines, located in or close to their coding gene (cis), were used as instrumental variables. Inverse-variance weighted MR was used as the primary analysis, and the MR assumptions were evaluated in sensitivity and colocalization analyses and a false discovery rate (FDR) correction for multiple comparisons was applied. Corresponding germline GWAS summary data for five cancer outcomes (breast, endometrial, lung, ovarian, and prostate), and their subtypes were selected from the largest cancer-specific GWASs available (cases ranging from 12,906 for endometrial to 133,384 for breast cancer). RESULTS: There was evidence of inverse associations of macrophage migration inhibitory factor with breast cancer (OR per SD = 0.88, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.94), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist with endometrial cancer (0.86, 0.80 to 0.93), interleukin-18 with lung cancer (0.87, 0.81 to 0.93), and beta-chemokine-RANTES with ovarian cancer (0.70, 0.57 to 0.85) and positive associations of monokine induced by gamma interferon with endometrial cancer (3.73, 1.86 to 7.47) and cutaneous T-cell attracting chemokine with lung cancer (1.51, 1.22 to 1.87). These associations were similar in sensitivity analyses and supported in colocalization analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Our study adds to current knowledge on the role of specific inflammatory biomarker pathways in cancer aetiology. Further validation is needed to assess the potential of these cytokines as pharmacological or lifestyle targets for cancer prevention.

A Mendelian randomization of γ' and total fibrinogen levels in relation to venous thromboembolism and ischemic stroke.

Fibrinogen is a key component of the coagulation cascade, and variation in its circulating levels may contribute to thrombotic diseases, such as venous thromboembolism (VTE) and ischemic stroke. Gamma prime (γ') fibrinogen is an isoform of fibrinogen that has anticoagulant properties. We applied 2-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to estimate the causal effect of total circulating fibrinogen and its isoform, γ' fibrinogen, on risk of VTE and ischemic stroke subtypes using summary statistics from genome-wide association studies. Genetic instruments for γ' fibrinogen and total fibrinogen were selected, and the inverse-variance weighted MR approach was used to estimate causal effects in the main analysis, complemented by sensitivity analyses that are more robust to the inclusion of pleiotropic variants, including MR-Egger, weighted median MR, and weighted mode MR. The main inverse-variance weighted MR estimates based on a combination of 16 genetic instruments for γ' fibrinogen and 75 genetic instruments for total fibrinogen indicated a protective effect of higher γ' fibrinogen and higher total fibrinogen on VTE risk. There was also a protective effect of higher γ' fibrinogen levels on cardioembolic and large artery stroke risk. Effect estimates were consistent across sensitivity analyses. Our results provide evidence to support effects of genetically determined γ' fibrinogen on VTE and ischemic stroke risk. Further research is needed to explore mechanisms underlying these effects and their clinical applications.

Gene-diet interactions and cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review of observational and clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: Both genetic background and diet are important determinants of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Understanding gene-diet interactions could help improve CVD prevention and prognosis. We aimed to summarise the evidence on gene-diet interactions and CVD outcomes systematically. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE® via Ovid, Embase, PubMed®, and The Cochrane Library for relevant studies published until June 6th 2022. We considered for inclusion cross-sectional, case-control, prospective cohort, nested case-control, and case-cohort studies as well as randomised controlled trials that evaluated the interaction between genetic variants and/or genetic risk scores and food or diet intake on the risk of related outcomes, including myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and CVD as a composite outcome. The PROSPERO protocol registration code is CRD42019147031. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: We included 59 articles based on data from 29 studies; six articles involved multiple studies, and seven did not report details of their source population. The median sample size of the articles was 2562 participants. Of the 59 articles, 21 (35.6%) were qualified as high quality, while the rest were intermediate or poor. Eleven (18.6%) articles adjusted for multiple comparisons, four (7.0%) attempted to replicate the findings, 18 (30.5%) were based on Han-Chinese ethnicity, and 29 (49.2%) did not present Minor Allele Frequency. Fifty different dietary exposures and 52 different genetic factors were investigated, with alcohol intake and ADH1C variants being the most examined. Of 266 investigated diet-gene interaction tests, 50 (18.8%) were statistically significant, including CETP-TaqIB and ADH1C variants, which interacted with alcohol intake on CHD risk. However, interactions effects were significant only in some articles and did not agree on the direction of effects. Moreover, most of the studies that reported significant interactions lacked replication. Overall, the evidence on gene-diet interactions on CVD is limited, and lack correction for multiple testing, replication and sample size consideration.

Higher thyrotropin leads to unfavorable lipid profile and somewhat higher cardiovascular disease risk: evidence from multi-cohort Mendelian randomization and metabolomic profiling.

BACKGROUND: Observational studies suggest interconnections between thyroid status, metabolism, and risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), but causality remains to be proven. The present study aimed to investigate the potential causal relationship between thyroid status and cardiovascular disease and to characterize the metabolomic profile associated with thyroid status. METHODS: Multi-cohort two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) was performed utilizing genome-wide significant variants as instruments for standardized thyrotropin (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4) within the reference range. Associations between TSH and fT4 and metabolic profile were investigated in a two-stage manner: associations between TSH and fT4 and the full panel of 161 metabolomic markers were first assessed hypothesis-free, then directional consistency was assessed through Mendelian randomization, another metabolic profile platform, and in individuals with biochemically defined thyroid dysfunction. RESULTS: Circulating TSH was associated with 52/161 metabolomic markers, and fT4 levels were associated with 21/161 metabolomic markers among 9432 euthyroid individuals (median age varied from 23.0 to 75.4 years, 54.5% women). Positive associations between circulating TSH levels and concentrations of very low-density lipoprotein subclasses and components, triglycerides, and triglyceride content of lipoproteins were directionally consistent across the multivariable regression, MR, metabolomic platforms, and for individuals with hypo- and hyperthyroidism. Associations with fT4 levels inversely reflected those observed with TSH. Among 91,810 CAD cases and 656,091 controls of European ancestry, per 1-SD increase of genetically determined TSH concentration risk of CAD increased slightly, but not significantly, with an OR of 1.03 (95% CI 0.99-1.07; p value 0.16), whereas higher genetically determined fT4 levels were not associated with CAD risk (OR 1.00 per SD increase of fT4; 95% CI 0.96-1.04; p value 0.59). CONCLUSIONS: Lower thyroid status leads to an unfavorable lipid profile and a somewhat increased cardiovascular disease risk.

Investigating the relationships between unfavourable habitual sleep and metabolomic traits: evidence from multi-cohort multivariable regression and Mendelian randomization analyses.

BACKGROUND: Sleep traits are associated with cardiometabolic disease risk, with evidence from Mendelian randomization (MR) suggesting that insomnia symptoms and shorter sleep duration increase coronary artery disease risk. We combined adjusted multivariable regression (AMV) and MR analyses of phenotypes of unfavourable sleep on 113 metabolomic traits to investigate possible biochemical mechanisms linking sleep to cardiovascular disease. METHODS: We used AMV (N = 17,368) combined with two-sample MR (N = 38,618) to examine effects of self-reported insomnia symptoms, total habitual sleep duration, and chronotype on 113 metabolomic traits. The AMV analyses were conducted on data from 10 cohorts of mostly Europeans, adjusted for age, sex, and body mass index. For the MR analyses, we used summary results from published European-ancestry genome-wide association studies of self-reported sleep traits and of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) serum metabolites. We used the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method and complemented this with sensitivity analyses to assess MR assumptions. RESULTS: We found consistent evidence from AMV and MR analyses for associations of usual vs. sometimes/rare/never insomnia symptoms with lower citrate (- 0.08 standard deviation (SD)[95% confidence interval (CI) - 0.12, - 0.03] in AMV and - 0.03SD [- 0.07, - 0.003] in MR), higher glycoprotein acetyls (0.08SD [95% CI 0.03, 0.12] in AMV and 0.06SD [0.03, 0.10) in MR]), lower total very large HDL particles (- 0.04SD [- 0.08, 0.00] in AMV and - 0.05SD [- 0.09, - 0.02] in MR), and lower phospholipids in very large HDL particles (- 0.04SD [- 0.08, 0.002] in AMV and - 0.05SD [- 0.08, - 0.02] in MR). Longer total sleep duration associated with higher creatinine concentrations using both methods (0.02SD per 1 h [0.01, 0.03] in AMV and 0.15SD [0.02, 0.29] in MR) and with isoleucine in MR analyses (0.22SD [0.08, 0.35]). No consistent evidence was observed for effects of chronotype on metabolomic measures. CONCLUSIONS: Whilst our results suggested that unfavourable sleep traits may not cause widespread metabolic disruption, some notable effects were observed. The evidence for possible effects of insomnia symptoms on glycoprotein acetyls and citrate and longer total sleep duration on creatinine and isoleucine might explain some of the effects, found in MR analyses of these sleep traits on coronary heart disease, which warrant further investigation.

A genome-wide association study identifies new loci for factor VII and implicates factor VII in ischemic stroke etiology.

Factor VII (FVII) is an important component of the coagulation cascade. Few genetic loci regulating FVII activity and/or levels have been discovered to date. We conducted a meta-analysis of 9 genome-wide association studies of plasma FVII levels (7 FVII activity and 2 FVII antigen) among 27 495 participants of European and African ancestry. Each study performed ancestry-specific association analyses. Inverse variance weighted meta-analysis was performed within each ancestry group and then combined for a trans-ancestry meta-analysis. Our primary analysis included the 7 studies that measured FVII activity, and a secondary analysis included all 9 studies. We provided functional genomic validation for newly identified significant loci by silencing candidate genes in a human liver cell line (HuH7) using small-interfering RNA and then measuring F7 messenger RNA and FVII protein expression. Lastly, we used meta-analysis results to perform Mendelian randomization analysis to estimate the causal effect of FVII activity on coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke (IS), and venous thromboembolism. We identified 2 novel (REEP3 and JAZF1-AS1) and 6 known loci associated with FVII activity, explaining 19.0% of the phenotypic variance. Adding FVII antigen data to the meta-analysis did not result in the discovery of further loci. Silencing REEP3 in HuH7 cells upregulated FVII, whereas silencing JAZF1 downregulated FVII. Mendelian randomization analyses suggest that FVII activity has a positive causal effect on the risk of IS. Variants at REEP3 and JAZF1 contribute to FVII activity by regulating F7 expression levels. FVII activity appears to contribute to the etiology of IS in the general population.

Genetic susceptibility, obesity and lifetime risk of type 2 diabetes: The ARIC study and Rotterdam Study.

AIMS: Both lifestyle factors and genetic background contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes. Estimation of the lifetime risk of diabetes based on genetic information has not been presented, and the extent to which a normal body weight can offset a high lifetime genetic risk is unknown. METHODS: We used data from 15,671 diabetes-free participants of European ancestry aged 45 years and older from the prospective population-based ARIC study and Rotterdam Study (RS). We quantified the remaining lifetime risk of diabetes stratified by genetic risk and quantified the effect of normal weight in terms of relative and lifetime risks in low, intermediate and high genetic risk. RESULTS: At age 45 years, the lifetime risk of type 2 diabetes in ARIC in the low, intermediate and high genetic risk category was 33.2%, 41.3% and 47.2%, and in RS 22.8%, 30.6% and 35.5% respectively. The absolute lifetime risk for individuals with normal weight compared to individuals with obesity was 24% lower in ARIC and 8.6% lower in RS in the low genetic risk group, 36.3% lower in ARIC and 31.3% lower in RS in the intermediate genetic risk group, and 25.0% lower in ARIC and 29.4% lower in RS in the high genetic risk group. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic variants for type 2 diabetes have value in estimating the lifetime risk of type 2 diabetes. Normal weight mitigates partly the deleterious effect of high genetic risk.

Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of carotid intima-media thickness.

Common carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is an index of subclinical atherosclerosis that is associated with ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease (CAD). We undertook a cross-sectional epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of measures of cIMT in 6400 individuals. Mendelian randomization analysis was applied to investigate the potential causal role of DNA methylation in the link between atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk factors and cIMT or clinical cardiovascular disease. The CpG site cg05575921 was associated with cIMT (beta = -0.0264, p value = 3.5 × 10-8) in the discovery panel and was replicated in replication panel (beta = -0.07, p value = 0.005). This CpG is located at chr5:81649347 in the intron 3 of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor gene (AHRR). Our results indicate that DNA methylation at cg05575921 might be in the pathway between smoking, cIMT and stroke. Moreover, in a region-based analysis, 34 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified of which a DMR upstream of ALOX12 showed the strongest association with cIMT (p value = 1.4 × 10-13). In conclusion, our study suggests that DNA methylation may play a role in the link between cardiovascular risk factors, cIMT and clinical cardiovascular disease.

Intermittent fasting for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Lifestyle changes are at the forefront of preventing the disease. This includes advice such as increasing physical activity and having a healthy balanced diet to reduce risk factors. Intermittent fasting (IF) is a popular dietary plan involving restricting caloric intake to certain days in the week such as alternate day fasting and periodic fasting, and restricting intake to a number of hours in a given day, otherwise known as time-restricted feeding. IF is being researched for its benefits and many randomised controlled trials have looked at its benefits in preventing CVD. OBJECTIVES: To determine the role of IF in preventing and reducing the risk of CVD in people with or without prior documented CVD. SEARCH METHODS: We conducted our search on 12 December 2019; we searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE and Embase. We also searched three trials registers and searched the reference lists of included papers. Systematic reviews were also viewed for additional studies. There was no language restriction applied. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials comparing IF to ad libitum feeding (eating at any time with no specific caloric restriction) or continuous energy restriction (CER). Participants had to be over the age of 18 and included those with and without cardiometabolic risk factors. Intermittent fasting was categorised into alternate-day fasting, modified alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting and time-restricted feeding. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Five review authors independently selected studies for inclusion and extraction. Primary outcomes included all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, stroke, myocardial infarction, and heart failure. Secondary outcomes include the absolute change in body weight, and glucose. Furthermore, side effects such as headaches and changes to the quality of life were also noted. For continuous data, pooled mean differences (MD) (with 95% confidence intervals (CIs)) were calculated. We contacted trial authors to obtain missing data. We used GRADE to assess the certainty of the evidence.  MAIN RESULTS: Our search yielded 39,165 records after the removal of duplicates. From this, 26 studies met our criteria, and 18 were included in the pooled analysis. The 18 studies included 1125 participants and observed outcomes ranging from four weeks to six months. No studies included data on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, stroke, myocardial infarction, and heart failure at any point during follow-up. Of quantitatively analysed data, seven studies compared IF with ab libitum feeding, eight studies compared IF with CER, and three studies compared IF with both ad libitum feeding and CER. Outcomes were reported at short term (≤ 3 months) and medium term (> 3 months to 12 months) follow-up. Body weight was reduced with IF compared to ad libitum feeding in the short term (MD -2.88 kg, 95% CI -3.96 to -1.80; 224 participants; 7 studies; low-certainty evidence). We are uncertain of the effect of IF when compared to CER in the short term (MD -0.88 kg, 95% CI -1.76 to 0.00; 719 participants; 10 studies; very low-certainty evidence) and there may be no effect in the medium term (MD -0.56 kg, 95% CI -1.68 to 0.56; 279 participants; 4 studies; low-certainty evidence). We are uncertain about the effect of IF on glucose when compared to ad libitum feeding in the short term (MD -0.03 mmol/L, 95% CI -0.26 to 0.19; 95 participants; 3 studies; very-low-certainty of evidence) and when compared to CER  in the short term: MD -0.02 mmol/L, 95% CI -0.16 to 0.12; 582 participants; 9 studies; very low-certainty; medium term: MD 0.01, 95% CI -0.10 to 0.11; 279 participants; 4 studies; low-certainty evidence). The changes in body weight and glucose were not deemed to be clinically significant. Four studies reported data on side effects, with some participants complaining of mild headaches. One study reported on the quality of life using the RAND SF-36 score. There was a modest increase in the physical component summary score. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Intermittent fasting was seen to be superior to ad libitum feeding in reducing weight. However, this was not clinically significant. There was no significant clinical difference between IF and CER in improving cardiometabolic risk factors to reduce the risk of CVD. Further research is needed to understand the safety and risk-benefit analysis of IF in specific patient groups (e.g. patients with diabetes or eating disorders) as well as the effect on longer-term outcomes such as all-cause mortality and myocardial infarction.