LiMA: Robust inference of molecular mediation from summary statistics.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the molecular mechanisms mediating the causal effects of epidemiological risk factors on complex traits can advance targeted disease interventions. Statistical mediation analysis facilitates this by disentangling direct and indirect causal effects. Current approaches to causal mediation leverage Mendelian randomization, using summary statistics from the exposure, mediator, and outcome studies that estimate the genetic effects of instruments. However, differences in study sample sizes (measurement errors) lead to substantial biases and poorly controlled type I error rates for these methods, which become especially pronounced when simultaneously estimating the mediation proportion of numerous mediators. To address these limitations, we introduce Likelihood-based Mediation Analy

SUBMITTER: Lepik K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12824626 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature