Phenome-wide Mendelian randomisation analysis identifies causal factors for age-related macular degeneration

• Published in: eLife Vol. 12
• Main Authors: Julian, Thomas H, Cooper-Knock, Johnathan, MacGregor, Stuart, Guo, Hui, Aslam, Tariq, Sanderson, Eleanor, Black, Graeme C M, Sergouniotis, Panagiotis I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 27.01.2023; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Age; age-related macular degeneration; Australia; Bayes Theorem; Bayesian analysis; causal inference; Causality; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Genotype & phenotype; Humans; Macular degeneration; Macular Degeneration - genetics; Medical research; Medicine; Mendelian randomisation; Mendelian randomization; Older people; Palmitoyltransferase; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Retina; Risk Factors; Serine palmitoyltransferase; Serum proteins; Sphingomyelin; Statistical analysis; statistics; Therapeutic targets; Australia; AMD; medicine; Mendelian randomization; causal inference; age-related macular degeneration; human; Mendelian randomisation; macular degeneration; statistics
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.82546

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in the industrialised world and is projected to affect >280 million people worldwide by 2040. Aiming to identify causal factors and potential therapeutic targets for this common condition, we designed and undertook a phenome-wide Mendelian randomisation (MR) study. We evaluated the effect of 4591 exposure traits on early AMD using univariable MR. Statistically significant results were explored further using: validation in an advanced AMD cohort; MR Bayesian model averaging (MR-BMA); and multivariable MR. Overall, 44 traits were found to be putatively causal for early AMD in univariable analysis. Serum proteins that were found to have significant relationships with AMD included S100-A5 (odds ratio [OR] = 1.07, p-value = 6.80E-06), cathepsin F (OR = 1.10, p-value = 7.16E-05), and serine palmitoyltransferase 2 (OR = 0.86, p-value = 1.00E-03). Univariable MR analysis also supported roles for complement and immune cell traits. Although numerous lipid traits were found to be significantly related to AMD, MR-BMA suggested a driving causal role for serum sphingomyelin (marginal inclusion probability [MIP] = 0.76; model-averaged causal estimate [MACE] = 0.29). The results of this MR study support several putative causal factors for AMD and highlight avenues for future translational research. This project was funded by the Wellcome Trust (224643/Z/21/Z; 200990/Z/16/Z); the University of Manchester's Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund (Wellcome ISSF) grant (204796/Z/16/Z); the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Academic Clinical Fellow and Clinical Lecturer Programmes; Retina UK and Fight for Sight (GR586); the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (1150144).