@article {1171, title = {Bayesian methods for meta-analysis of causal relationships estimated using genetic instrumental variables.}, journal = {Stat Med}, volume = {29}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May 30}, pages = {1298-311}, abstract = {

Genetic markers can be used as instrumental variables, in an analogous way to randomization in a clinical trial, to estimate the causal relationship between a phenotype and an outcome variable. Our purpose is to extend the existing methods for such Mendelian randomization studies to the context of multiple genetic markers measured in multiple studies, based on the analysis of individual participant data. First, for a single genetic marker in one study, we show that the usual ratio of coefficients approach can be reformulated as a regression with heterogeneous error in the explanatory variable. This can be implemented using a Bayesian approach, which is next extended to include multiple genetic markers. We then propose a hierarchical model for undertaking a meta-analysis of multiple studies, in which it is not necessary that the same genetic markers are measured in each study. This provides an overall estimate of the causal relationship between the phenotype and the outcome, and an assessment of its heterogeneity across studies. As an example, we estimate the causal relationship of blood concentrations of C-reactive protein on fibrinogen levels using data from 11 studies. These methods provide a flexible framework for efficient estimation of causal relationships derived from multiple studies. Issues discussed include weak instrument bias, analysis of binary outcome data such as disease risk, missing genetic data, and the use of haplotypes.

}, keywords = {Bayes Theorem, Biostatistics, C-Reactive Protein, Fibrinogen, Genetic Markers, Humans, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Models, Statistical, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1097-0258}, doi = {10.1002/sim.3843}, author = {Burgess, Stephen and Thompson, Simon G and Burgess, S and Thompson, S G and Andrews, G and Samani, N J and Hall, A and Whincup, P and Morris, R and Lawlor, D A and Davey Smith, G and Timpson, N and Ebrahim, S and Ben-Shlomo, Y and Davey Smith, G and Timpson, N and Brown, M and Ricketts, S and Sandhu, M and Reiner, A and Psaty, B and Lange, L and Cushman, M and Hung, J and Thompson, P and Beilby, J and Warrington, N and Palmer, L J and Nordestgaard, B G and Tybjaerg-Hansen, A and Zacho, J and Wu, C and Lowe, G and Tzoulaki, I and Kumari, M and Sandhu, M and Yamamoto, J F and Chiodini, B and Franzosi, M and Hankey, G J and Jamrozik, K and Palmer, L and Rimm, E and Pai, J and Psaty, B and Heckbert, S and Bis, J and Anand, S and Engert, J and Collins, R and Clarke, R and Melander, O and Berglund, G and Ladenvall, P and Johansson, L and Jansson, J-H and Hallmans, G and Hingorani, A and Humphries, S and Rimm, E and Manson, J and Pai, J and Watkins, H and Clarke, R and Hopewell, J and Saleheen, D and Frossard, R and Danesh, J and Sattar, N and Robertson, M and Shepherd, J and Schaefer, E and Hofman, A and Witteman, J C M and Kardys, I and Ben-Shlomo, Y and Davey Smith, G and Timpson, N and de Faire, U and Bennet, A and Sattar, N and Ford, I and Packard, C and Kumari, M and Manson, J and Lawlor, Debbie A and Davey Smith, George and Anand, S and Collins, R and Casas, J P and Danesh, J and Davey Smith, G and Franzosi, M and Hingorani, A and Lawlor, D A and Manson, J and Nordestgaard, B G and Samani, N J and Sandhu, M and Smeeth, L and Wensley, F and Anand, S and Bowden, J and Burgess, S and Casas, J P and Di Angelantonio, E and Engert, J and Gao, P and Shah, T and Smeeth, L and Thompson, S G and Verzilli, C and Walker, M and Whittaker, J and Hingorani, A and Danesh, J} } @article {6569, title = {Association between alcohol and cardiovascular disease: Mendelian randomisation analysis based on individual participant data.}, journal = {BMJ}, volume = {349}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 10}, pages = {g4164}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To use the rs1229984 variant in the alcohol dehydrogenase 1B gene (ADH1B) as an instrument to investigate the causal role of alcohol in cardiovascular disease.

DESIGN: Mendelian randomisation meta-analysis of 56 epidemiological studies.

PARTICIPANTS: 261 991 individuals of European descent, including 20 259 coronary heart disease cases and 10 164 stroke events. Data were available on ADH1B rs1229984 variant, alcohol phenotypes, and cardiovascular biomarkers.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Odds ratio for coronary heart disease and stroke associated with the ADH1B variant in all individuals and by categories of alcohol consumption.

RESULTS: Carriers of the A-allele of ADH1B rs1229984 consumed 17.2\% fewer units of alcohol per week (95\% confidence interval 15.6\% to 18.9\%), had a lower prevalence of binge drinking (odds ratio 0.78 (95\% CI 0.73 to 0.84)), and had higher abstention (odds ratio 1.27 (1.21 to 1.34)) than non-carriers. Rs1229984 A-allele carriers had lower systolic blood pressure (-0.88 (-1.19 to -0.56) mm Hg), interleukin-6 levels (-5.2\% (-7.8 to -2.4\%)), waist circumference (-0.3 (-0.6 to -0.1) cm), and body mass index (-0.17 (-0.24 to -0.10) kg/m(2)). Rs1229984 A-allele carriers had lower odds of coronary heart disease (odds ratio 0.90 (0.84 to 0.96)). The protective association of the ADH1B rs1229984 A-allele variant remained the same across all categories of alcohol consumption (P=0.83 for heterogeneity). Although no association of rs1229984 was identified with the combined subtypes of stroke, carriers of the A-allele had lower odds of ischaemic stroke (odds ratio 0.83 (0.72 to 0.95)).

CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with a genetic variant associated with non-drinking and lower alcohol consumption had a more favourable cardiovascular profile and a reduced risk of coronary heart disease than those without the genetic variant. This suggests that reduction of alcohol consumption, even for light to moderate drinkers, is beneficial for cardiovascular health.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Alcohol Dehydrogenase, Alcohol Drinking, Biomarkers, Coronary Disease, Female, Genetic Markers, Genotype, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Models, Statistical, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stroke}, issn = {1756-1833}, doi = {10.1136/bmj.g4164}, author = {Holmes, Michael V and Dale, Caroline E and Zuccolo, Luisa and Silverwood, Richard J and Guo, Yiran and Ye, Zheng and Prieto-Merino, David and Dehghan, Abbas and Trompet, Stella and Wong, Andrew and Cavadino, Alana and Drogan, Dagmar and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Li, Shanshan and Yesupriya, Ajay and Leusink, Maarten and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Hubacek, Jaroslav A and Pikhart, Hynek and Swerdlow, Daniel I and Panayiotou, Andrie G and Borinskaya, Svetlana A and Finan, Chris and Shah, Sonia and Kuchenbaecker, Karoline B and Shah, Tina and Engmann, Jorgen and Folkersen, Lasse and Eriksson, Per and Ricceri, Fulvio and Melander, Olle and Sacerdote, Carlotta and Gamble, Dale M and Rayaprolu, Sruti and Ross, Owen A and McLachlan, Stela and Vikhireva, Olga and Sluijs, Ivonne and Scott, Robert A and Adamkova, Vera and Flicker, Leon and Bockxmeer, Frank M van and Power, Christine and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Meade, Tom and Marmot, Michael G and Ferro, Jose M and Paulos-Pinheiro, Sofia and Humphries, Steve E and Talmud, Philippa J and Mateo Leach, Irene and Verweij, Niek and Linneberg, Allan and Skaaby, Tea and Doevendans, Pieter A and Cramer, Maarten J and van der Harst, Pim and Klungel, Olaf H and Dowling, Nicole F and Dominiczak, Anna F and Kumari, Meena and Nicolaides, Andrew N and Weikert, Cornelia and Boeing, Heiner and Ebrahim, Shah and Gaunt, Tom R and Price, Jackie F and Lannfelt, Lars and Peasey, Anne and Kubinova, Ruzena and Pajak, Andrzej and Malyutina, Sofia and Voevoda, Mikhail I and Tamosiunas, Abdonas and Maitland-van der Zee, Anke H and Norman, Paul E and Hankey, Graeme J and Bergmann, Manuela M and Hofman, Albert and Franco, Oscar H and Cooper, Jackie and Palmen, Jutta and Spiering, Wilko and de Jong, Pim A and Kuh, Diana and Hardy, Rebecca and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ikram, M Arfan and Ford, Ian and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Almeida, Osvaldo P and Wareham, Nicholas J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Hamsten, Anders and Husemoen, Lise Lotte N and Tj{\o}nneland, Anne and Tolstrup, Janne S and Rimm, Eric and Beulens, Joline W J and Verschuren, W M Monique and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Hofker, Marten H and Wannamethee, S Goya and Whincup, Peter H and Morris, Richard and Vicente, Astrid M and Watkins, Hugh and Farrall, Martin and Jukema, J Wouter and Meschia, James and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sharp, Stephen J and Fornage, Myriam and Kooperberg, Charles and LaCroix, Andrea Z and Dai, James Y and Lanktree, Matthew B and Siscovick, David S and Jorgenson, Eric and Spring, Bonnie and Coresh, Josef and Li, Yun R and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Schreiner, Pamela J and Ellison, R Curtis and Tsai, Michael Y and Patel, Sanjay R and Redline, Susan and Johnson, Andrew D and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Hakonarson, Hakon and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and de Bakker, Paul I W and Kivimaki, Mika and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Sattar, Naveed and Lawlor, Debbie A and Whittaker, John and Davey Smith, George and Mukamal, Kenneth and Psaty, Bruce M and Wilson, James G and Lange, Leslie A and Hamidovic, Ajna and Hingorani, Aroon D and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Bobak, Martin and Leon, David A and Langenberg, Claudia and Palmer, Tom M and Reiner, Alex P and Keating, Brendan J and Dudbridge, Frank and Casas, Juan P} } @article {6568, title = {Mendelian randomization of blood lipids for coronary heart disease.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, volume = {36}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar 01}, pages = {539-50}, abstract = {

AIMS: To investigate the causal role of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides in coronary heart disease (CHD) using multiple instrumental variables for Mendelian randomization.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We developed weighted allele scores based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with established associations with HDL-C, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). For each trait, we constructed two scores. The first was unrestricted, including all independent SNPs associated with the lipid trait identified from a prior meta-analysis (threshold P < 2 {\texttimes} 10(-6)); and the second a restricted score, filtered to remove any SNPs also associated with either of the other two lipid traits at P <= 0.01. Mendelian randomization meta-analyses were conducted in 17 studies including 62,199 participants and 12,099 CHD events. Both the unrestricted and restricted allele scores for LDL-C (42 and 19 SNPs, respectively) associated with CHD. For HDL-C, the unrestricted allele score (48 SNPs) was associated with CHD (OR: 0.53; 95\% CI: 0.40, 0.70), per 1 mmol/L higher HDL-C, but neither the restricted allele score (19 SNPs; OR: 0.91; 95\% CI: 0.42, 1.98) nor the unrestricted HDL-C allele score adjusted for triglycerides, LDL-C, or statin use (OR: 0.81; 95\% CI: 0.44, 1.46) showed a robust association. For triglycerides, the unrestricted allele score (67 SNPs) and the restricted allele score (27 SNPs) were both associated with CHD (OR: 1.62; 95\% CI: 1.24, 2.11 and 1.61; 95\% CI: 1.00, 2.59, respectively) per 1-log unit increment. However, the unrestricted triglyceride score adjusted for HDL-C, LDL-C, and statin use gave an OR for CHD of 1.01 (95\% CI: 0.59, 1.75).

CONCLUSION: The genetic findings support a causal effect of triglycerides on CHD risk, but a causal role for HDL-C, though possible, remains less certain.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, HDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Gene Frequency, Genotype, Genotyping Techniques, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Triglycerides}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/eht571}, author = {Holmes, Michael V and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Palmer, Tom M and Drenos, Fotios and Lanktree, Matthew B and Nelson, Christopher P and Dale, Caroline E and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Finan, Chris and Swerdlow, Daniel I and Tragante, Vinicius and van Iperen, Erik P A and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Shah, Sonia and Elbers, Clara C and Shah, Tina and Engmann, Jorgen and Giambartolomei, Claudia and White, Jon and Zabaneh, Delilah and Sofat, Reecha and McLachlan, Stela and Doevendans, Pieter A and Balmforth, Anthony J and Hall, Alistair S and North, Kari E and Almoguera, Berta and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Cushman, Mary and Fornage, Myriam and Patel, Sanjay R and Redline, Susan and Siscovick, David S and Tsai, Michael Y and Karczewski, Konrad J and Hofker, Marten H and Verschuren, W Monique and Bots, Michiel L and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Melander, Olle and Dominiczak, Anna F and Morris, Richard and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Price, Jackie and Kumari, Meena and Baumert, Jens and Peters, Annette and Thorand, Barbara and Koenig, Wolfgang and Gaunt, Tom R and Humphries, Steve E and Clarke, Robert and Watkins, Hugh and Farrall, Martin and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and de Bakker, Paul I W and Lange, Leslie A and Davey Smith, George and Reiner, Alex P and Talmud, Philippa J and Kivimaki, Mika and Lawlor, Debbie A and Dudbridge, Frank and Samani, Nilesh J and Keating, Brendan J and Hingorani, Aroon D and Casas, Juan P} } @article {6813, title = {Shared genetic basis for migraine and ischemic stroke: A genome-wide analysis of common variants.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {84}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 May 26}, pages = {2132-45}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To quantify genetic overlap between migraine and ischemic stroke (IS) with respect to common genetic variation.

METHODS: We applied 4 different approaches to large-scale meta-analyses of genome-wide data on migraine (23,285 cases and 95,425 controls) and IS (12,389 cases and 62,004 controls). First, we queried known genome-wide significant loci for both disorders, looking for potential overlap of signals. We then analyzed the overall shared genetic load using polygenic scores and estimated the genetic correlation between disease subtypes using data derived from these models. We further interrogated genomic regions of shared risk using analysis of covariance patterns between the 2 phenotypes using cross-phenotype spatial mapping.

RESULTS: We found substantial genetic overlap between migraine and IS using all 4 approaches. Migraine without aura (MO) showed much stronger overlap with IS and its subtypes than migraine with aura (MA). The strongest overlap existed between MO and large artery stroke (LAS; p = 6.4 {\texttimes} 10(-28) for the LAS polygenic score in MO) and between MO and cardioembolic stroke (CE; p = 2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-20) for the CE score in MO).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate shared genetic susceptibility to migraine and IS, with a particularly strong overlap between MO and both LAS and CE pointing towards shared mechanisms. Our observations on MA are consistent with a limited role of common genetic variants in this subtype.

}, keywords = {Brain Ischemia, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Migraine with Aura, Migraine without Aura, Stroke}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000001606}, author = {Malik, Rainer and Freilinger, Tobias and Winsvold, Bendik S and Anttila, Verneri and Vander Heiden, Jason and Traylor, Matthew and de Vries, Boukje and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Terwindt, Gisela M and Sturm, Jonathan and Bis, Joshua C and Hopewell, Jemma C and Ferrari, Michel D and Rannikmae, Kristiina and Wessman, Maija and Kallela, Mikko and Kubisch, Christian and Fornage, Myriam and Meschia, James F and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Sudlow, Cathie and Clarke, Robert and Chasman, Daniel I and Mitchell, Braxton D and Maguire, Jane and Kaprio, Jaakko and Farrall, Martin and Raitakari, Olli T and Kurth, Tobias and Ikram, M Arfan and Reiner, Alex P and Longstreth, W T and Rothwell, Peter M and Strachan, David P and Sharma, Pankaj and Seshadri, Sudha and Quaye, Lydia and Cherkas, Lynn and Sch{\"u}rks, Markus and Rosand, Jonathan and Ligthart, Lannie and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Davey Smith, George and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Worrall, Bradford B and Nyholt, Dale R and Markus, Hugh S and van den Maagdenberg, Arn M J M and Cotsapas, Chris and Zwart, John A and Palotie, Aarno and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {7594, title = {Association Between Telomere Length and Risk of Cancer and Non-Neoplastic Diseases: A Mendelian Randomization Study.}, journal = {JAMA Oncol}, volume = {3}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May 01}, pages = {636-651}, abstract = {

Importance: The causal direction and magnitude of the association between telomere length and incidence of cancer and non-neoplastic diseases is uncertain owing to the susceptibility of observational studies to confounding and reverse causation.

Objective: To conduct a Mendelian randomization study, using germline genetic variants as instrumental variables, to appraise the causal relevance of telomere length for risk of cancer and non-neoplastic diseases.

Data Sources: Genomewide association studies (GWAS) published up to January 15, 2015.

Study Selection: GWAS of noncommunicable diseases that assayed germline genetic variation and did not select cohort or control participants on the basis of preexisting diseases. Of 163 GWAS of noncommunicable diseases identified, summary data from 103 were available.

Data Extraction and Synthesis: Summary association statistics for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are strongly associated with telomere length in the general population.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Odds ratios (ORs) and 95\% confidence intervals (CIs) for disease per standard deviation (SD) higher telomere length due to germline genetic variation.

Results: Summary data were available for 35 cancers and 48 non-neoplastic diseases, corresponding to 420 081 cases (median cases, 2526 per disease) and 1 093 105 controls (median, 6789 per disease). Increased telomere length due to germline genetic variation was generally associated with increased risk for site-specific cancers. The strongest associations (ORs [95\% CIs] per 1-SD change in genetically increased telomere length) were observed for glioma, 5.27 (3.15-8.81); serous low-malignant-potential ovarian cancer, 4.35 (2.39-7.94); lung adenocarcinoma, 3.19 (2.40-4.22); neuroblastoma, 2.98 (1.92-4.62); bladder cancer, 2.19 (1.32-3.66); melanoma, 1.87 (1.55-2.26); testicular cancer, 1.76 (1.02-3.04); kidney cancer, 1.55 (1.08-2.23); and endometrial cancer, 1.31 (1.07-1.61). Associations were stronger for rarer cancers and at tissue sites with lower rates of stem cell division. There was generally little evidence of association between genetically increased telomere length and risk of psychiatric, autoimmune, inflammatory, diabetic, and other non-neoplastic diseases, except for coronary heart disease (OR, 0.78 [95\% CI, 0.67-0.90]), abdominal aortic aneurysm (OR, 0.63 [95\% CI, 0.49-0.81]), celiac disease (OR, 0.42 [95\% CI, 0.28-0.61]) and interstitial lung disease (OR, 0.09 [95\% CI, 0.05-0.15]).

Conclusions and Relevance: It is likely that longer telomeres increase risk for several cancers but reduce risk for some non-neoplastic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Germ-Line Mutation, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Telomere, Telomere Homeostasis}, issn = {2374-2445}, doi = {10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.5945}, author = {Haycock, Philip C and Burgess, Stephen and Nounu, Aayah and Zheng, Jie and Okoli, George N and Bowden, Jack and Wade, Kaitlin Hazel and Timpson, Nicholas J and Evans, David M and Willeit, Peter and Aviv, Abraham and Gaunt, Tom R and Hemani, Gibran and Mangino, Massimo and Ellis, Hayley Patricia and Kurian, Kathreena M and Pooley, Karen A and Eeles, Rosalind A and Lee, Jeffrey E and Fang, Shenying and Chen, Wei V and Law, Matthew H and Bowdler, Lisa M and Iles, Mark M and Yang, Qiong and Worrall, Bradford B and Markus, Hugh Stephen and Hung, Rayjean J and Amos, Chris I and Spurdle, Amanda B and Thompson, Deborah J and O{\textquoteright}Mara, Tracy A and Wolpin, Brian and Amundadottir, Laufey and Stolzenberg-Solomon, Rachael and Trichopoulou, Antonia and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Lund, Eiliv and Duell, Eric J and Canzian, Federico and Severi, Gianluca and Overvad, Kim and Gunter, Marc J and Tumino, Rosario and Svenson, Ulrika and van Rij, Andre and Baas, Annette F and Bown, Matthew J and Samani, Nilesh J and van t{\textquoteright}Hof, Femke N G and Tromp, Gerard and Jones, Gregory T and Kuivaniemi, Helena and Elmore, James R and Johansson, Mattias and Mckay, James and Scelo, Ghislaine and Carreras-Torres, Robert and Gaborieau, Valerie and Brennan, Paul and Bracci, Paige M and Neale, Rachel E and Olson, Sara H and Gallinger, Steven and Li, Donghui and Petersen, Gloria M and Risch, Harvey A and Klein, Alison P and Han, Jiali and Abnet, Christian C and Freedman, Neal D and Taylor, Philip R and Maris, John M and Aben, Katja K and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Vermeulen, Sita H and Wiencke, John K and Walsh, Kyle M and Wrensch, Margaret and Rice, Terri and Turnbull, Clare and Litchfield, Kevin and Paternoster, Lavinia and Standl, Marie and Abecasis, Goncalo R and SanGiovanni, John Paul and Li, Yong and Mijatovic, Vladan and Sapkota, Yadav and Low, Siew-Kee and Zondervan, Krina T and Montgomery, Grant W and Nyholt, Dale R and van Heel, David A and Hunt, Karen and Arking, Dan E and Ashar, Foram N and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Comeau, Mary E and Brown, W Mark and Silverman, Edwin K and Hokanson, John E and Cho, Michael H and Hui, Jennie and Ferreira, Manuel A and Thompson, Philip J and Morrison, Alanna C and Felix, Janine F and Smith, Nicholas L and Christiano, Angela M and Petukhova, Lynn and Betz, Regina C and Fan, Xing and Zhang, Xuejun and Zhu, Caihong and Langefeld, Carl D and Thompson, Susan D and Wang, Feijie and Lin, Xu and Schwartz, David A and Fingerlin, Tasha and Rotter, Jerome I and Cotch, Mary Frances and Jensen, Richard A and Munz, Matthias and Dommisch, Henrik and Schaefer, Arne S and Han, Fang and Ollila, Hanna M and Hillary, Ryan P and Albagha, Omar and Ralston, Stuart H and Zeng, Chenjie and Zheng, Wei and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Reis, Andre and Uebe, Steffen and H{\"u}ffmeier, Ulrike and Kawamura, Yoshiya and Otowa, Takeshi and Sasaki, Tsukasa and Hibberd, Martin Lloyd and Davila, Sonia and Xie, Gang and Siminovitch, Katherine and Bei, Jin-Xin and Zeng, Yi-Xin and F{\"o}rsti, Asta and Chen, Bowang and Landi, Stefano and Franke, Andre and Fischer, Annegret and Ellinghaus, David and Flores, Carlos and Noth, Imre and Ma, Shwu-Fan and Foo, Jia Nee and Liu, Jianjun and Kim, Jong-Won and Cox, David G and Delattre, Olivier and Mirabeau, Olivier and Skibola, Christine F and Tang, Clara S and Garcia-Barcelo, Merce and Chang, Kai-Ping and Su, Wen-Hui and Chang, Yu-Sun and Martin, Nicholas G and Gordon, Scott and Wade, Tracey D and Lee, Chaeyoung and Kubo, Michiaki and Cha, Pei-Chieng and Nakamura, Yusuke and Levy, Daniel and Kimura, Masayuki and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Hunt, Steven and Spector, Tim and Soranzo, Nicole and Manichaikul, Ani W and Barr, R Graham and Kahali, Bratati and Speliotes, Elizabeth and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Jonas, Jost B and Wong, Tien Yin and Fogh, Isabella and Lin, Kuang and Powell, John F and Rice, Kenneth and Relton, Caroline L and Martin, Richard M and Davey Smith, George} } @article {8206, title = {Genetic architecture of subcortical brain structures in 38,851 individuals.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {51}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov}, pages = {1624-1636}, abstract = {

Subcortical brain structures are integral to motion, consciousness, emotions and learning. We identified common genetic variation related to the volumes of the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, brainstem, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, putamen and thalamus, using genome-wide association analyses in almost 40,000 individuals from CHARGE, ENIGMA and UK Biobank. We show that variability in subcortical volumes is heritable, and identify 48 significantly associated loci (40 novel at the time of analysis). Annotation of these loci by utilizing gene expression, methylation and neuropathological data identified 199 genes putatively implicated in neurodevelopment, synaptic signaling, axonal transport, apoptosis, inflammation/infection and susceptibility to neurological disorders. This set of genes is significantly enriched for Drosophila orthologs associated with neurodevelopmental phenotypes, suggesting evolutionarily conserved mechanisms. Our findings uncover novel biology and potential drug targets underlying brain development and disease.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-019-0511-y}, author = {Satizabal, Claudia L and Adams, Hieab H H and Hibar, Derrek P and White, Charles C and Knol, Maria J and Stein, Jason L and Scholz, Markus and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Jahanshad, Neda and Roshchupkin, Gennady V and Smith, Albert V and Bis, Joshua C and Jian, Xueqiu and Luciano, Michelle and Hofer, Edith and Teumer, Alexander and van der Lee, Sven J and Yang, Jingyun and Yanek, Lisa R and Lee, Tom V and Li, Shuo and Hu, Yanhui and Koh, Jia Yu and Eicher, John D and Desrivi{\`e}res, Sylvane and Arias-Vasquez, Alejandro and Chauhan, Ganesh and Athanasiu, Lavinia and Renter{\'\i}a, Miguel E and Kim, Sungeun and Hoehn, David and Armstrong, Nicola J and Chen, Qiang and Holmes, Avram J and den Braber, Anouk and Kloszewska, Iwona and Andersson, Micael and Espeseth, Thomas and Grimm, Oliver and Abramovic, Lucija and Alhusaini, Saud and Milaneschi, Yuri and Papmeyer, Martina and Axelsson, Tomas and Ehrlich, Stefan and Roiz-Santia{\~n}ez, Roberto and Kraemer, Bernd and H{\r a}berg, Asta K and Jones, Hannah J and Pike, G Bruce and Stein, Dan J and Stevens, Allison and Bralten, Janita and Vernooij, Meike W and Harris, Tamara B and Filippi, Irina and Witte, A Veronica and Guadalupe, Tulio and Wittfeld, Katharina and Mosley, Thomas H and Becker, James T and Doan, Nhat Trung and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Saba, Yasaman and Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel and Amin, Najaf and Hilal, Saima and Nho, Kwangsik and Mirza-Schreiber, Nazanin and Arfanakis, Konstantinos and Becker, Diane M and Ames, David and Goldman, Aaron L and Lee, Phil H and Boomsma, Dorret I and Lovestone, Simon and Giddaluru, Sudheer and Le Hellard, Stephanie and Mattheisen, Manuel and Bohlken, Marc M and Kasperaviciute, Dalia and Schmaal, Lianne and Lawrie, Stephen M and Agartz, Ingrid and Walton, Esther and Tordesillas-Gutierrez, Diana and Davies, Gareth E and Shin, Jean and Ipser, Jonathan C and Vinke, Louis N and Hoogman, Martine and Jia, Tianye and Burkhardt, Ralph and Klein, Marieke and Crivello, Fabrice and Janowitz, Deborah and Carmichael, Owen and Haukvik, Unn K and Aribisala, Benjamin S and Schmidt, Helena and Strike, Lachlan T and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Risacher, Shannon L and P{\"u}tz, Benno and Fleischman, Debra A and Assareh, Amelia A and Mattay, Venkata S and Buckner, Randy L and Mecocci, Patrizia and Dale, Anders M and Cichon, Sven and Boks, Marco P and Matarin, Mar and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Calhoun, Vince D and Chakravarty, M Mallar and Marquand, Andre F and Macare, Christine and Kharabian Masouleh, Shahrzad and Oosterlaan, Jaap and Amouyel, Philippe and Hegenscheid, Katrin and Rotter, Jerome I and Schork, Andrew J and Liewald, David C M and de Zubicaray, Greig I and Wong, Tien Yin and Shen, Li and S{\"a}mann, Philipp G and Brodaty, Henry and Roffman, Joshua L and de Geus, Eco J C and Tsolaki, Magda and Erk, Susanne and van Eijk, Kristel R and Cavalleri, Gianpiero L and van der Wee, Nic J A and McIntosh, Andrew M and Gollub, Randy L and Bulayeva, Kazima B and Bernard, Manon and Richards, Jennifer S and Himali, Jayandra J and Loeffler, Markus and Rommelse, Nanda and Hoffmann, Wolfgang and Westlye, Lars T and Vald{\'e}s Hern{\'a}ndez, Maria C and Hansell, Narelle K and van Erp, Theo G M and Wolf, Christiane and Kwok, John B J and Vellas, Bruno and Heinz, Andreas and Olde Loohuis, Loes M and Delanty, Norman and Ho, Beng-Choon and Ching, Christopher R K and Shumskaya, Elena and Singh, Baljeet and Hofman, Albert and van der Meer, Dennis and Homuth, Georg and Psaty, Bruce M and Bastin, Mark E and Montgomery, Grant W and Foroud, Tatiana M and Reppermund, Simone and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Simmons, Andrew and Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas and Cahn, Wiepke and Whelan, Christopher D and van Donkelaar, Marjolein M J and Yang, Qiong and Hosten, Norbert and Green, Robert C and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Mohnke, Sebastian and Hulshoff Pol, Hilleke E and Lin, Honghuang and Jack, Clifford R and Schofield, Peter R and M{\"u}hleisen, Thomas W and Maillard, Pauline and Potkin, Steven G and Wen, Wei and Fletcher, Evan and Toga, Arthur W and Gruber, Oliver and Huentelman, Matthew and Davey Smith, George and Launer, Lenore J and Nyberg, Lars and J{\"o}nsson, Erik G and Crespo-Facorro, Benedicto and Koen, Nastassja and Greve, Douglas N and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Weinberger, Daniel R and Steen, Vidar M and Fedko, Iryna O and Groenewold, Nynke A and Niessen, Wiro J and Toro, Roberto and Tzourio, Christophe and Longstreth, William T and Ikram, M Kamran and Smoller, Jordan W and van Tol, Marie-Jose and Sussmann, Jessika E and Paus, Tom{\'a}{\v s} and Lema{\^\i}tre, Herv{\'e} and Schroeter, Matthias L and Mazoyer, Bernard and Andreassen, Ole A and Holsboer, Florian and Depondt, Chantal and Veltman, Dick J and Turner, Jessica A and Pausova, Zdenka and Schumann, Gunter and van Rooij, Daan and Djurovic, Srdjan and Deary, Ian J and McMahon, Katie L and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Brouwer, Rachel M and Soininen, Hilkka and Pandolfo, Massimo and Wassink, Thomas H and Cheung, Joshua W and Wolfers, Thomas and Martinot, Jean-Luc and Zwiers, Marcel P and Nauck, Matthias and Melle, Ingrid and Martin, Nicholas G and Kanai, Ryota and Westman, Eric and Kahn, Ren{\'e} S and Sisodiya, Sanjay M and White, Tonya and Saremi, Arvin and van Bokhoven, Hans and Brunner, Han G and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wright, Margaret J and van {\textquoteright}t Ent, Dennis and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Ophoff, Roel A and Buitelaar, Jan K and Fern{\'a}ndez, Guill{\'e}n and Sachdev, Perminder S and Rietschel, Marcella and van Haren, Neeltje E M and Fisher, Simon E and Beiser, Alexa S and Francks, Clyde and Saykin, Andrew J and Mather, Karen A and Romanczuk-Seiferth, Nina and Hartman, Catharina A and DeStefano, Anita L and Heslenfeld, Dirk J and Weiner, Michael W and Walter, Henrik and Hoekstra, Pieter J and Nyquist, Paul A and Franke, Barbara and Bennett, David A and Grabe, Hans J and Johnson, Andrew D and Chen, Christopher and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Lopez, Oscar L and Fornage, Myriam and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Schmidt, Reinhold and DeCarli, Charles and De Jager, Philip L and Villringer, Arno and Debette, Stephanie and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Medland, Sarah E and Shulman, Joshua M and Thompson, Paul M and Seshadri, Sudha and Ikram, M Arfan} } @article {8050, title = {Mendelian randomization evaluation of causal effects of fibrinogen on incident coronary heart disease.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {14}, year = {2019}, month = {2019}, pages = {e0216222}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Fibrinogen is an essential hemostatic factor and cardiovascular disease risk factor. Early attempts at evaluating the causal effect of fibrinogen on coronary heart disease (CHD) and myocardial infraction (MI) using Mendelian randomization (MR) used single variant approaches, and did not take advantage of recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) or multi-variant, pleiotropy robust MR methodologies.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: We evaluated evidence for a causal effect of fibrinogen on both CHD and MI using MR. We used both an allele score approach and pleiotropy robust MR models. The allele score was composed of 38 fibrinogen-associated variants from recent GWAS. Initial analyses using the allele score used a meta-analysis of 11 European-ancestry prospective cohorts, free of CHD and MI at baseline, to examine incidence CHD and MI. We also applied 2 sample MR methods with data from a prevalent CHD and MI GWAS. Results are given in terms of the hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR), depending on the study design, and associated 95\% confidence interval (CI). In single variant analyses no causal effect of fibrinogen on CHD or MI was observed. In multi-variant analyses using incidence CHD cases and the allele score approach, the estimated causal effect (HR) of a 1 g/L higher fibrinogen concentration was 1.62 (CI = 1.12, 2.36) when using incident cases and the allele score approach. In 2 sample MR analyses that accounted for pleiotropy, the causal estimate (OR) was reduced to 1.18 (CI = 0.98, 1.42) and 1.09 (CI = 0.89, 1.33) in the 2 most precise (smallest CI) models, out of 4 models evaluated. In the 2 sample MR analyses for MI, there was only very weak evidence of a causal effect in only 1 out of 4 models.

CONCLUSIONS: A small causal effect of fibrinogen on CHD is observed using multi-variant MR approaches which account for pleiotropy, but not single variant MR approaches. Taken together, results indicate that even with large sample sizes and multi-variant approaches MR analyses still cannot exclude the null when estimating the causal effect of fibrinogen on CHD, but that any potential causal effect is likely to be much smaller than observed in epidemiological studies.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0216222}, author = {Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and de Vries, Paul S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Huffman, Jennifer E and Yanek, Lisa R and Bielak, Lawrence F and Giulianini, Franco and Guo, Xiuqing and Kleber, Marcus E and Kacprowski, Tim and Gro{\ss}, Stefan and Petersman, Astrid and Davey Smith, George and Hartwig, Fernando P and Bowden, Jack and Hemani, Gibran and M{\"u}ller-Nuraysid, Martina and Strauch, Konstantin and Koenig, Wolfgang and Waldenberger, Melanie and Meitinger, Thomas and Pankratz, Nathan and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tang, Weihong and Fu, Yi-Ping and Johnson, Andrew D and Song, Ci and de Maat, Moniek P M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Brody, Jennifer A and McKnight, Barbara and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Psaty, Bruce M and Mathias, Rasika A and Becker, Diane M and Peyser, Patricia A and Smith, Jennifer A and Bielinski, Suzette J and Ridker, Paul M and Taylor, Kent D and Yao, Jie and Tracy, Russell and Delgado, Graciela and Trompet, Stella and Sattar, Naveed and Jukema, J Wouter and Becker, Lewis C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Rotter, Jerome I and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Chasman, Daniel I and Dehghan, Abbas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L and Peters, Annette and Morrison, Alanna C} }