Mendelian randomization in cardiometabolic disease: challenges in evaluating causality.

ABSTRACT: Mendelian randomization (MR) is a burgeoning field that involves the use of genetic variants to assess causal relationships between exposures and outcomes. MR studies can be straightforward; for example, genetic variants within or near the encoding locus that is associated with protein concentrations can help to assess their causal role in disease. However, a more complex relationship between the genetic variants and an exposure can make findings from MR more difficult to interpret. In this Review, we describe some of these challenges in interpreting MR analyses, including those from studies using genetic variants to assess causality of multiple traits (such as branched-chain amino acids and risk of diabetes mellitus); studies describing pleiotropic variants (for example, C-reactive protei

SUBMITTER: Holmes MV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5600813 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature