Genetic analysis of over half a million people characterises C-reactive protein loci
Saredo Said, Raha Pazoki, Ville Karhunen, Urmo Võsa, Symen Ligthart, Barbara Bodinier, Fotios Koskeridis, Paul Welsh, Behrooz Z. Alizadeh, Daniel I. Chasman, Naveed Sattar, Marc Chadeau‐Hyam, Εvangelos Εvangelou, Marjo‐Riitta Järvelin, Paul Elliott, Ioanna Tzoulaki, Abbas Dehghan
Abstract
Abstract Chronic low-grade inflammation is linked to a multitude of chronic diseases. We report the largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) on C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of systemic inflammation, in UK Biobank participants (N = 427,367, European descent) and the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium (total N = 575,531 European descent). We identify 266 independent loci, of which 211 are not previously reported. Gene-set analysis highlighted 42 gene sets associated with CRP levels ( p ≤ 3.2 ×10 −6 ) and tissue expression analysis indicated a strong association of CRP related genes with liver and whole blood gene expression. Phenome-wide association study identified 27 clinical outcomes associated with genetically determined CRP and subsequent Mendelian randomisation analyses supported a causal association with schizophrenia, chronic airway obstruction and prostate cancer. Our findings identified genetic loci and functional properties of chronic low-grade inflammation and provided evidence for causal associations with a range of diseases.