ArticleScientific reports2015
MR-PheWAS: hypothesis prioritization among potential causal effects of body mass index on many outcomes, using Mendelian randomization.
Article in Scientific reports, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A multi-population phenome-wide association study of genetically-predicted height in the Million Veteran Program.PLoS genetics · 2022Pooled it
- Genetic Obesity and the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation: Causal Estimates from Mendelian Randomization.Circulation · 2017Pooled it
- Moving Mendelian Randomization From Traditional Risk Factors to Molecular Targets for Drug Development and Clinical Trials in Nephrology.Kidney international reports · 2026Review
- Mendelian randomization analysis: causal link between hyperthyroidism/thyrotoxicosis and ovarian cancer.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Cholecystitis and cholangiocarcinoma: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.BMC gastroenterology · 2025Article
- A sex-specific Mendelian randomization-phenome-wide association study of body mass index.eLife · 2025Article
- Genetic Insights into Therapeutic Targets for Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders: A Mendelian Randomization Study.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Leveraging pleiotropy for the improved treatment of psychiatric disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- Causal Impacts of Psychiatric Disorders on Cognition and the Mediating Effect of Oxidative Stress: A Mendelian Randomization Study.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Plasma pQTL and brain eQTL integration identifies PNKP as a therapeutic target and reveals mechanistic insights into migraine pathophysiology.The journal of headache and pain · 2024Article
- CoPheScan: phenome-wide association studies accounting for linkage disequilibrium.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Mammographic density mediates the protective effect of early-life body size on breast cancer risk.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Phenome-wide Mendelian randomisation analysis of 378,142 cases reveals risk factors for eight common cancers.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Causal Pathways Between Breast Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Through Mediator Factors: A Two-Step Mendelian Randomization Analysis.International journal of women's health · 2024Article
- Phenome-wide association network demonstrates close connection with individual disease trajectories from the HUNT study.PloS one · 2024Article
- The mediating role of mammographic density in the protective effect of early-life adiposity on breast cancer risk: a multivariable Mendelian randomization study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Risk factors for eight common cancers revealed from a phenome-wide Mendelian randomisation analysis of 378,142 cases and 485,715 controls.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Identifying the potential causal role of insomnia symptoms on 11,409 health-related outcomes: a phenome-wide Mendelian randomisation analysis in UK Biobank.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- Association between breast cancer and thyroid cancer risk: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Mendelian randomisation studies of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.JCPP advances · 2022Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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6 authors.
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Abstract
Observational cohort studies can provide rich datasets with a diverse range of phenotypic variables. However, hypothesis-driven epidemiological analyses by definition only test particular hypotheses chosen by researchers. Furthermore, observational analyses may not provide robust evidence of causality, as they are susceptible to confounding, reverse causation and measurement error. Using body mass index (BMI) as an exemplar, we demonstrate a novel extension to the phenome-wide association study (pheWAS) approach, using automated screening with genotypic instruments to screen for causal associations amongst any number of phenotypic outcomes. We used a sample of 8,121 children from the ALSPAC dataset, and tested the linear association of a BMI-associated allele score with 172 phenotypic outcomes (with variable sample sizes). We also performed an instrumental variable analysis to estimate the causal effect of BMI on each phenotype. We found 21 of the 172 outcomes were associated with the allele score at an unadjusted p < 0.05 threshold, and use Bonferroni corrections, permutation testing and estimates of the false discovery rate to consider the strength of results given the number of tests performed. The most strongly associated outcomes included leptin, lipid profile, and blood pressure. We also found novel evidence of effects of BMI on a global self-worth score.
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