Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42078410›Full record

ArticlemedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences2026

Shared Risk Genes and Casual Relationships across Sex Hormone Related Traits and Alzheimer's Disease.

Chenyu Yang, Noah Cook, Youjie Zeng, Sathesh K Sivasankaran, FinnGen, Alex DeCasien, Shea J Andrews, Michael E Belloy

Abstract readPreprint
In one paragraph

Article in medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

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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

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

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

8 authors.

Chenyu YangDepartment of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.ORCID 0009-0003-2017-6134
Noah CookDepartment of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Youjie ZengDepartment of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Sathesh K SivasankaranDepartment of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
FinnGen
Alex DeCasienNational Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health.
Shea J AndrewsDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1921-9470
Michael E BelloyDepartment of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7748-9033

Funding

Elucidating the causal associations underlying Alzheimer's diseaseR00AG070109 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI ANDREWS, SHEA J · 2023 to 2025
$742k
Elucidating sex-specific risk for Alzheimer's disease through state-of-the-art genetics and multi-omicsR00AG075238 · NIA · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI BELLOY, MICHAEL · 2024 to 2025
$727k
NIA NIH HHS R00 AG070109NIA NIH HHS R00 AG075238
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) exhibits marked sex differences. While sex hormone levels across the lifespan likely contribute to this, little remains known about their causal impact and their relation to sex-biased genetic risk for AD. We therefore sought to identify potential shared genetic architectures, as well as causal genes and relationships, between sex hormone-related traits and AD risk. Methods: Large-scale AD sex-stratified genome-wide association study (GWAS) results were available from case-control, proxy-based, and population-based cohorts, including the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium, Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project, UK Biobank, and FinnGen. Sex hormone-related trait GWAS were available for age at menarche, menopause, and voice breaking, as well as testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), progesterone, follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, and estradiol levels. Cross-trait conjunctional analyses were conducted to identify pleiotropic overlap between sex-hormone traits and AD, followed by prioritization of candidate causal sex-biased AD genes through quantitative trait locus genetic colocalization analyses. The potential regulatory impact of sex hormones on these genes was assessed through transcription factor motif analyses. Finally, sex-stratified mendelian randomization analyses were used to infer causal effects of sex hormones on AD risk. Results: Genome-wide pleiotropy analyses demonstrated enrichment of AD with testosterone, SHBG, and age-at-menarche traits in women. We identified 12 high-confidence pleiotropic loci, 9 of which showed stronger AD effect sizes in women (3 in men) and 8 that were novel. Genes at these loci were often causally implicated in brain tissues and enriched for promoter-associated androgen receptor transcription factor binding motifs. Mendelian randomization indicated higher bioavailable testosterone in women (OR:0.88; 95%-CI:0.82-0.96) and higher SHBG levels in men (OR:0.86; 95%-CI:0.77-0.96) were associated with lower AD risk. Conclusions: Our findings reveal sex-specific shared genetic architectures between AD and sex hormone-related traits and nominate related genes that may drive sex-biases in AD risk. Several of the implicated female-biased genes are relevant to phosphatidylinositol and lipid metabolism, including

Identifiers

PMID42078410
PMCPMC13131734

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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.