MR-PheWAS for the causal effects of serum magnesium on multiple disease outcomes in Caucasian descent

Longman Li; Wenjun Yang; Lulu Huang; Xiuming Feng; Hong Cheng; Xiaoting Ge; Gaohui Zan; Yanli Tan; Lili Xiao; Chaoqun Liu; Xing Chen; Zengnan Mo; Xiaobo Yang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.103191

MR-PheWAS for the causal effects of serum magnesium on multiple disease outcomes in Caucasian descent

iScience. 2021 Sep 30;24(10):103191. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103191. eCollection 2021 Oct 22.

Authors

Longman Li^{1

2}, Wenjun Yang^{1

3

4}, Lulu Huang^{1

5}, Xiuming Feng^{1

4}, Hong Cheng^{1

4}, Xiaoting Ge^{1

4}, Gaohui Zan^{1

4}, Yanli Tan^{1

4}, Lili Xiao⁴, Chaoqun Liu⁶, Xing Chen⁷, Zengnan Mo^{1

2}, Xiaobo Yang^{1

4

8}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Key Laboratory for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Collaborative Innovation Center for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China.
² Department of Urology, Institute of Urology and Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China.
³ Guangxi Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedicine (Guangxi-ASEAN Collaborative Innovation Center for Major Disease Prevention and Treatment), Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China.
⁴ Department of Occupational Health and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China.
⁵ Department of Radiotherapy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China.
⁶ Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China.
⁷ School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China.
⁸ Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou 545006, Guangxi, China.

Abstract

Magnesium is integral to many physiological processes, whereas variations in its levels, even within the normal range, can have critical implications for health. To explore the broad clinical effects of varying serum magnesium levels, we performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization and phenome-wide association study (MR-PheWAS) in the UK Biobank cohort. In total, MR-PheWAS analysis implicated a causal role of serum magnesium levels in five disease groups and six disease outcomes. In addition, our study indicated the gender-specific effects of nine disease groups/outcomes in MR estimated effects. The protein-protein interaction network demonstrated an interaction between the serum magnesium-associated gene DCDC1 and the cataract- associated gene PAX6. The present study verified several previously reported disease outcomes and identified novel potential disease outcomes for serum magnesium levels. The DCDC1 gene and the PAX6 gene may be the new targets for promoting the treatments of cataracts using magnesium intervention.

Keywords: Bioinformatics; Clinical medicine; Complex system biology; Medicine; Omics; Pathophysiology.

Abstract

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