@article {8657,
	title = {{Genome-Wide Association Study of Circulating Interleukin 6 Levels Identifies Novel Loci},
	journal = {Hum Mol Genet},
	year = {2021},
	month = {Jan},
	abstract = {Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine with both pro- and anti-inflammatory properties with a heritability estimate of up to 61\%. The circulating levels of IL-6 in blood have been associated with an increased risk of complex disease pathogenesis. We conducted a two-staged, discovery, and replication meta genome-wide association study (GWAS) of circulating serum IL-6 levels comprising up to 67 428 (ndiscovery = 52 654 and nreplication = 14 774) individuals of European ancestry. The inverse variance fixed-effects based discovery meta-analysis, followed by replication led to the identification of two independent loci, IL1F10/IL1RN rs6734238 on Chromosome (Chr) 2q14, (pcombined = 1.8 {\texttimes} 10-11), HLA-DRB1/DRB5 rs660895 on Chr6p21 (pcombined = 1.5 {\texttimes} 10-10) in the combined meta-analyses of all samples. We also replicated the IL6R rs4537545 locus on Chr1q21 (pcombined = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10-122). Our study identifies novel loci for circulating IL-6 levels uncovering new immunological and inflammatory pathways that may influence IL-6 pathobiology.},
	author = {Ahluwalia, T. S. and Prins, B. P. and Abdollahi, M. and Armstrong, N. J. and Aslibekyan, S. and Bain, L. and Jefferis, B. and Baumert, J. and Beekman, M. and Ben-Shlomo, Y. and Bis, J. C. and Mitchell, B. D. and de Geus, E. and Delgado, G. E. and Marek, D. and Eriksson, J. and Kajantie, E. and Kanoni, S. and Kemp, J. P. and Lu, C. and Marioni, R. E. and McLachlan, S. and Milaneschi, Y. and Nolte, I. M. and Petrelis, A. M. and Porcu, E. and Sabater-Lleal, M. and Naderi, E. and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, I. and Shah, T. and Singhal, G. and Standl, M. and Teumer, A. and Thalamuthu, A. and Thiering, E. and Trompet, S. and Ballantyne, C. M. and Benjamin, E. J. and Casas, J. P. and Toben, C. and Dedoussis, G. and Deelen, J. and Durda, P. and Engmann, J. and Feitosa, M. F. and Grallert, H. and Hammarstedt, A. and Harris, S. E. and Homuth, G. and Hottenga, J. J. and Jalkanen, S. and Jamshidi, Y. and Jawahar, M. C. and Jess, T. and Kivimaki, M. and Kleber, M. E. and Lahti, J. and Liu, Y. and Marques-Vidal, P. and Mellstr{\"o}m, D. and Mooijaart, S. P. and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, M. and Penninx, B. and Revez, J. A. and Rossing, P. and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, K. and Sattar, N. and Scharnagl, H. and Sennblad, B. and Silveira, A. and Pourcain, B. S. and Timpson, N. J. and Trollor, J. and van Dongen, J. and van Heemst, D. and Visvikis-Siest, S. and Vollenweider, P. and V{\"o}lker, U. and Waldenberger, M. and Willemsen, G. and Zabaneh, D. and Morris, R. W. and Arnett, D. K. and Baune, B. T. and Boomsma, D. I. and Chang, Y. C. and Deary, I. J. and Deloukas, P. and Eriksson, J. G. and Evans, D. M. and Ferreira, M. A. and Gaunt, T. and Gudnason, V. and Hamsten, A. and Heinrich, J. and Hingorani, A. and Humphries, S. E. and Jukema, J. W. and Koeing, W. and Kumari, M. and Kutalik, Z. and Lawlor, D. A. and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T. and M{\"a}rz, W. and Mather, K. and Naitza, S. and Nauck, M. and Ohlsson, C. and Price, J. F. and Raitakari, O. and Rice, K. and Sachdev, P. S. and Slagboom, E. and S{\o}rensen, T. I. A. and Spector, T. and Stacey, D. and Stathopoulou, M. G. and Tanaka, T. and Wannamethee, S. G. and Whincup, P. and Rotter, J. I. and Dehghan, A. and Boerwinkle, E. and Psaty, B. M. and Snieder, H. and Alizadeh, B. Z.}
}
