SynthesisPLoS genetics2018
Genome-wide meta-analysis of 158,000 individuals of European ancestry identifies three loci associated with chronic back pain.
Synthesis in PLoS genetics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 163 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genetic architecture of lumbar spinal stenosis.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Multi-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies discovers 67 new loci associated with chronic back pain.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- Genome-wide meta-analysis conducted in three large biobanks expands the genetic landscape of lumbar disc herniations.Nature communications · 2024Pooled it
- A multi-ancestry genetic study of pain intensity in 598,339 veterans.Nature medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Genome wide association joint analysis reveals 99 risk loci for pain susceptibility and pleiotropic relationships with psychiatric, metabolic, and immunological traits.PLoS genetics · 2023Pooled it
- Genome-wide association study meta-analysis of suicide death and suicidal behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Causal effects of psychosocial factors on chronic back pain: a bidirectional Mendelian randomisation study.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2022Pooled it
- Sex-stratified genome-wide association study of multisite chronic pain in UK Biobank.PLoS genetics · 2021Pooled it
- ISSLS Prize in Clinical Science 2020. Examining causal effects of body mass index on back pain: a Mendelian randomization study.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2020 · on this mapPooled it
- Article
- Dorsal horn DCC amplification loop induced by endplate osteoclasts generates chronic nociplastic low back pain in male mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- GWAS of extended prescription analgesic use identifies genetic loci in chronic pain.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Spatially Contextualized Integrative Genomics Highlights Neuronal and Glial Regulatory Programs in Low Back Pain.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Genetic underpinnings and causal effects of brain structure and function on chronic pain intensity.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Review
- Understanding the Comorbidities Among Psychiatric Disorders, Chronic Low Back Pain, and Spinal Degenerative Disease Using Observational and Genetically Informed Analyses.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- What a pain in the back: etiology, diagnosis and future treatment directions for discogenic low back pain.Bone research · 2025Review
- The effect of type 2 diabetes genetic predisposition on non-cardiovascular comorbidities.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Challenges and opportunities for omics-based precision medicine in chronic low back pain.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025Review
- Mechanism-based nonopioid analgesic targets.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2025Review
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
37 authors at 20 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Back pain is the #1 cause of years lived with disability worldwide, yet surprisingly little is known regarding the biology underlying this symptom. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis of chronic back pain (CBP). Adults of European ancestry were included from 15 cohorts in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, and from the UK Biobank interim data release. CBP cases were defined as those reporting back pain present for ≥3-6 months; non-cases were included as comparisons ("controls"). Each cohort conducted genotyping using commercially available arrays followed by imputation. GWAS used logistic regression models with additive genetic effects, adjusting for age, sex, study-specific covariates, and population substructure. The threshold for genome-wide significance in the fixed-effect inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis was p<5×10(-8). Suggestive (p<5×10(-7)) and genome-wide significant (p<5×10(-8)) variants were carried forward for replication or further investigation in the remaining UK Biobank participants not included in the discovery sample. The discovery sample comprised 158,025 individuals, including 29,531 CBP cases. A genome-wide significant association was found for the intronic variant rs12310519 in SOX5 (OR 1.08, p = 7.2×10(-10)). This was subsequently replicated in 283,752 UK Biobank participants not included in the discovery sample, including 50,915 cases (OR 1.06, p = 5.3×10(-11)), and exceeded genome-wide significance in joint meta-analysis (OR 1.07, p = 4.5×10(-19)). We found suggestive associations at three other loci in the discovery sample, two of which exceeded genome-wide significance in joint meta-analysis: an intergenic variant, rs7833174, located between CCDC26 and GSDMC (OR 1.05, p = 4.4×10(-13)), and an intronic variant, rs4384683, in DCC (OR 0.97, p = 2.4×10(-10)). In this first reported meta-analysis of GWAS for CBP, we identified and replicated a genetic locus associated with CBP (SOX5). We also identified 2 other loci that reached genome-wide significance in a 2-stage joint meta-analysis (CCDC26/GSDMC and DCC).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.