Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39825454›Full record

ArticleHuman genomics2025

The interplay of sex and genotype in disease associations: a comprehensive network analysis in the UK Biobank.

Vivek Sriram, Jakob Woerner, Yong-Yeol Ahn, Dokyoon Kim

Abstract read
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Article in Human genomics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
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2citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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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

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Vivek SriramGenomics and Computational Biology Graduate Group, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Jakob WoernerGenomics and Computational Biology Graduate Group, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Yong-Yeol AhnCenter for Complex Networks and Systems Research, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA. yyahn@iu.edu.
Dokyoon KimDepartment of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Richards Building B304, 3700 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA. dokyoon.kim@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.

Funding

Unravelling genetic basis of comorbidity using EHR-linked biobank dataR01GM138597 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · PI KIM, DOKYOON · 2020 to 2023
$2.2M
Biomedical Image Computing and Informatics ClusterS10OD023495 · OD · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · PI DAVATZIKOS, CHRISTOS · 2017 to 2017
$1.9M
NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM138597NIH HHS S10OD023495
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDisease comorbidities and longer-term complications, arising from biologically related associations across phenotypes, can lead to increased risk of severe health outcomes. Given that many diseases exhibit sex-specific differences in their genetics, our objective was to determine whether genotype-by-sex (GxS) interactions similarly influence cross-phenotype associations. Through comparison of sex-stratified disease-disease networks (DDNs)-where nodes represent diseases and edges represent their relationships-we investigate sex differences in patterns of polygenicity and pleiotropy between diseases.

resultsUsing UK Biobank summary statistics, we built male- and female-specific DDNs for 103 diseases. This revealed that male and female diseasomes have similar topology and central diseases (e.g., hypertensive, chronic respiratory, and thyroid-based disorders), yet some phenotypes exhibit sex-specific influence in cross-phenotype associations. Multiple sclerosis and osteoarthritis are central only in the female DDN, while cardiometabolic diseases and skin cancer are more prominent in the male DDN. Edge comparison indicated similar shared genetics between the two graphs relative to a random model of disease association, though notable discrepancies in embedding distances and clustering patterns imply a more expansive genetic influence on multimorbidity risk for females than males. Analysis of pleiotropic contributions of two sexually-dimorphic single-nucleotide polymorphisms related to thyroid disorders further validated a distinct genetic architecture across sexes that influences associations, confirmed through examination of corresponding gene expression profiles from the GTEx Portal.

conclusionsOur analysis affirms the presence of GxS interactions in cross-phenotype associations, emphasizing the need to investigate the role of sex in disease onset and its importance in biomedical discovery and precision medicine research.

Indexed as

Genetic Predisposition to DiseaseBiological Specimen BanksFemaleGenotypeHumansMaleMultifactorial InheritancePhenotypePolymorphism, Single NucleotideSex FactorsUK BiobankUnited KingdomComplex diseaseGenotype-by-sex effectsNetwork sciencePhenome-wide association studyPleiotropy

Identifiers

PMID39825454
PMCPMC11740496

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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.