Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis
Stavroula Kanoni, Sarah E. Graham, Yuxuan Wang, Ida Surakka, Shweta Ramdas, Xiang Zhu, Shoa L. Clarke, Konain Fatima Bhatti, Sailaja Vedantam, Thomas W. Winkler, Adam E. Locke, Eirini Marouli, Greg J.M. Zajac, Kuan-Han Wu, Ιωάννα Ντάλλα, Qin Hui, Derek Klarin, Austin T. Hilliard, Zeyuan Wang, Chao Xue, Guðmar Þorleifsson, Anna Helgadóttir, Daníel F. Guðbjartsson, Hilma Hólm, Ísleifur Ólafsson, Mi Yeong Hwang, Sohee Han, Masato Akiyama, Saori Sakaue, Chikashi Terao, Masahiro Kanai, Wei Zhou, Ben Brumpton, Humaira Rasheed, Aki S. Havulinna, Yogasudha Veturi, Jennifer A. Pacheco, Elisabeth A. Rosenthal, Todd Lingren, QiPing Feng, Iftikhar J. Kullo, Akira Narita, Jun Takayama, Hilary C. Martin, Karen A. Hunt, Bhavi Trivedi, Jeffrey Haessler, Franco Giulianini, Yuki Bradford, Jason E. Miller, Archie Campbell, Kuang Lin, Iona Y. Millwood, Asif Rasheed, George Hindy, Jessica D. Faul, Wei Zhao, David R. Weir, Constance Turman, Hongyan Huang, Mariaelisa Graff, Ananyo Choudhury, Dhriti Sengupta, Anubha Mahajan, Michael R. Brown, Weihua Zhang, Ketian Yu, Ellen M. Schmidt, Anita Pandit, Stefan Gustafsson, Xianyong Yin, Jian’an Luan, Jinghua Zhao, Fumihiko Matsuda, Hye-Mi Jang, Kyungheon Yoon, Carolina Medina‐Gómez, Achilleas Pitsillides, Jouke Jan Hottenga, Andrew R. Wood, Yingji Ji, Zishan Gao, Simon Haworth, Noha A. Yousri, Ruth E. Mitchell, Jin Fang Chai, Mette Aadahl, Anne Ahrendt Bjerregaard, Jie Yao, Ani Manichaikul, Chii‐Min Hwu, Yi‐Jen Hung, Helen R. Warren, Julia Ramírez, Jette Bork‐Jensen, Line Lund Kårhus, Anuj Goel, Maria Sabater‐Lleal, Raymond Noordam, Mauro Pala
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery. RESULTS: To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N = 1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3-5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk.