Genomics and phenomics of body mass index reveals a complex disease network

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  • Jie Huang
  • Jennifer E. Huffman
  • Yunfeng Huang
  • Ítalo Do Valle
  • Themistocles L. Assimes
  • Sridharan Raghavan
  • Benjamin F. Voight
  • Chang Liu
  • Albert László Barabási
  • Rose D.L. Huang
  • Qin Hui
  • Xuan Mai T. Nguyen
  • Yuk Lam Ho
  • Luc Djousse
  • Julie A. Lynch
  • Marijana Vujkovic
  • Catherine Tcheandjieu
  • Hua Tang
  • Scott M. Damrauer
  • Peter D. Reaven
  • Donald Miller
  • Lawrence S. Phillips
  • Maggie C.Y. Ng
  • Mariaelisa Graff
  • Christopher A. Haiman
  • Loos, Ruth
  • Kari E. North
  • Loic Yengo
  • George Davey Smith
  • Danish Saleheen
  • J. Michael Gaziano
  • Daniel J. Rader
  • Philip S. Tsao
  • Kelly Cho
  • Kyong Mi Chang
  • Peter W.F. Wilson
  • Yan V. Sun
  • Christopher J. O’Donnell
  • VA Million Veteran Program

Elevated body mass index (BMI) is heritable and associated with many health conditions that impact morbidity and mortality. The study of the genetic association of BMI across a broad range of common disease conditions offers the opportunity to extend current knowledge regarding the breadth and depth of adiposity-related diseases. We identify 906 (364 novel) and 41 (6 novel) genome-wide significant loci for BMI among participants of European (N~1.1 million) and African (N~100,000) ancestry, respectively. Using a BMI genetic risk score including 2446 variants, 316 diagnoses are associated in the Million Veteran Program, with 96.5% showing increased risk. A co-morbidity network analysis reveals seven disease communities containing multiple interconnected diseases associated with BMI as well as extensive connections across communities. Mendelian randomization analysis confirms numerous phenotypes across a breadth of organ systems, including conditions of the circulatory (heart failure, ischemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation), genitourinary (chronic renal failure), respiratory (respiratory failure, asthma), musculoskeletal and dermatologic systems that are deeply interconnected within and across the disease communities. This work shows that the complex genetic architecture of BMI associates with a broad range of major health conditions, supporting the need for comprehensive approaches to prevent and treat obesity.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7973
JournalNature Communications
Volume13
Issue number1
Number of pages10
ISSN2041-1723
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

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© 2022, This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.

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