Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32632436›Full record

ArticleBriefings in bioinformatics2021

Testing cell-type-specific mediation effects in genome-wide epigenetic studies.

Xiangyu Luo, Joel Schwartz, Andrea Baccarelli, Zhonghua Liu

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Briefings in bioinformatics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
0.6field-weighted citation impact, top 35% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.

Xiangyu LuoInstitute of Statistics and Big Data, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0002-1062-7443
Joel SchwartzDepartment of Environmental Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
Andrea BaccarelliLeon Hess Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA.
Zhonghua LiuDepartment of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.ORCID 0000-0003-3048-9823
Columbia University · USHarvard University · USRenmin University of China · CNUniversity of Hong Kong · HK

Funding

Epigenetic Effects of Particles and Metals on Cardiac Health of an Aging CohortR01ES015172 · NIEHS · HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI SCHWARTZ, JOEL D · 2006 to 2015
$4.8M
Molecular and Epigenetic Mitochondriomics of Air Particles, Lead and CognitionR01ES021733 · NIEHS · HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI BACCARELLI, ANDREA · 2012 to 2015
$2.4M
NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES015172NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES021733
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Epigenome-wide mediation analysis aims to identify DNA methylation CpG sites that mediate the causal effects of genetic/environmental exposures on health outcomes. However, DNA methylations in the peripheral blood tissues are usually measured at the bulk level based on a heterogeneous population of white blood cells. Using the bulk level DNA methylation data in mediation analysis might cause confounding bias and reduce study power. Therefore, it is crucial to get fine-grained results by detecting mediation CpG sites in a cell-type-specific way. However, there is a lack of methods and software to achieve this goal. We propose a novel method (Mediation In a Cell-type-Specific fashion, MICS) to identify cell-type-specific mediation effects in genome-wide epigenetic studies using only the bulk-level DNA methylation data. MICS follows the standard mediation analysis paradigm and consists of three key steps. In step1, we assess the exposure-mediator association for each cell type; in step 2, we assess the mediator-outcome association for each cell type; in step 3, we combine the cell-type-specific exposure-mediator and mediator-outcome associations using a multiple testing procedure named MultiMed [Sampson JN, Boca SM, Moore SC, et al. FWER and FDR control when testing multiple mediators. Bioinformatics 2018;34:2418-24] to identify significant CpGs with cell-type-specific mediation effects. We conduct simulation studies to demonstrate that our method has correct FDR control. We also apply the MICS procedure to the Normative Aging Study and identify nine DNA methylation CpG sites in the lymphocytes that might mediate the effect of cigarette smoking on the lung function.

Indexed as

CpG IslandsDNA MethylationEpigenesis, GeneticGenome-Wide Association StudyEpigenomicsHumansSmokingcell-type specificDNA methylationinverse regressionmediation analysismultiple testing

Identifiers

PMID32632436
PMCPMC8138838
OpenAlexW3040877387

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.