mGWAS-Explorer: Linking SNPs, Genes, Metabolites, and Diseases for Functional Insights

Metabolites. 2022 Jun 7;12(6):526. doi: 10.3390/metabo12060526.

Abstract

Tens of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified to be significantly associated with metabolite abundance in over 65 genome-wide association studies with metabolomics (mGWAS) to date. Obtaining mechanistic or functional insights from these associations for translational applications has become a key research area in the mGWAS community. Here, we introduce mGWAS-Explorer, a user-friendly web-based platform to help connect SNPs, metabolites, genes, and their known disease associations via powerful network visual analytics. The application of the mGWAS-Explorer was demonstrated using a COVID-19 and a type 2 diabetes case studies.

Keywords: SNP; cross-phenotype association analysis; mGWAS; mQTL; metabolomics; network; pleiotropy.