Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2024 Jan 30:15:1325939.
doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1325939. eCollection 2024.

Investigating the shared genetic architecture between COVID-19 and obesity: a large-scale genome wide cross-trait analysis

Yanjing Chen  1 , Chunhua Fan  1 , Jun Liu  1   2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Investigating the shared genetic architecture between COVID-19 and obesity: a large-scale genome wide cross-trait analysis

Yanjing Chen et al. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Observational studies have reported high comorbidity between obesity and severe COVID-19. The aim of this study is to explore whether genetic factors are involved in the co-occurrence of the two traits. Based on the available genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics, we explored the genetic correlation and performed cross-trait meta-analysis (CPASSOC) and colocalization analysis (COLOC) to detect pleiotropic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). At the genetic level, we obtained genes detected by Functional mapping and annotation (FUMA) and the Multi-marker Analysis of GenoMic Annotation (MAGMA). Potential functional genes were further investigated by summary-data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR). Finally, the casualty was identiied using the latent causal variable model (LCV). A significant positive genetic correlation was revealed between obesity and COVID-19. We found 331 shared genetic SNPs by CPASSOC and 13 shared risk loci by COLOC. At the genetic level, We obtained 3546 pleiotropic genes, among which 107 genes were found to be significantly expressed by SMR. Lastly, we observed these genes were mainly enriched in immune pathways and signaling transduction. These indings could provide new insights into the etiology of comorbidity and have implications for future therapeutic trial.

Keywords: COVID-19; GWAS; genetic correlation; genetic overlap; obesity; pleiotropy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of research of shared genetic architecture between COVID-19 and obesity.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) The manhattan plot of the SNP-based test based on results of CPASSOC of crirical COVID-19; (B) the result of tissue enrichment in GTEx 8 of shared genes between critical COVID-19 and BMI, the color red represents the significant tissue, the color blue represents the tissue did not reach threshold.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The results of enrichment of the shared genetic architecture between COVID-19 and obesity. (A) The circle plot of GO result, (B) The bubble plot of KEGG analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Singh SP, Pritam M, Pandey B, Yadav TP. Microstructure, pathophysiology, and potential therapeutics of COVID-19: A comprehensive review. J Med Virol (2021) 93(1):275–99. doi: 10.1002/jmv.26254 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. de Leeuw AJM, Oude Luttikhuis MAM, Wellen AC, Müller C, Calkhoven CF. Obesity and its impact on COVID-19. J Mol Med (Berlin Germany) (2021) 99(7):899–915. doi: 10.1007/s00109-021-02072-4 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dietz W, Santos-Burgoa C. Obesity and its implications for COVID-19 mortality. Obes (Silver Spring Md) (2020) 28(6):1005. doi: 10.1002/oby.22818 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Scherer PE, Kirwan JP, Rosen CJ. Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19: A metabolic perspective. eLife (2022) 11:e78200. doi: 10.7554/eLife.78200 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lima-Martínez MM, Carrera Boada C, Madera-Silva MD, Marín W, Contreras M. COVID-19 and diabetes: A bidirectional relationship. Clinica e Invest en Arterioscler Publicacion Oficial la Sociedad Espanola Arteriosc (2021) 33(3):151–7. doi: 10.1016/j.artere.2021.04.004 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types