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Phenome-wide association studies (PheWAS) have been proposed as a possible aid in drug development through elucidating mechanisms of action, identifying alternative indications, or predicting adverse drug events (ADEs). Here, we select 25 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) linked through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to 19 candidate drug targets for common disease indications. We interrogate these SNPs by PheWAS in four large cohorts with extensive health information (23andMe, UK Biobank, FINRISK, CHOP) for association with 1683 binary endpoints in up to 697,815 individuals and conduct meta-analyses for 145 mapped disease endpoints. Our analyses replicate 75% of known GWAS associations (P < 0.05) and identify nine study-wide significant novel associations (of 71 with FDR < 0.1). We describe associations that may predict ADEs, e.g., acne, high cholesterol, gout, and gallstones with rs738409 (p.I148M) in PNPLA3 and asthma with rs1990760 (p.T946A) in IFIH1. Our results demonstrate PheWAS as a powerful addition to the toolkit for drug discovery.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/s41467-018-06540-3

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nat Commun

Publication Date

16/10/2018

Volume

9

Keywords

Asthma, Cohort Studies, Databases, Factual, Drug Discovery, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Pleiotropy, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Interferon-Induced Helicase, IFIH1, Lipase, Membrane Proteins, Molecular Targeted Therapy, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Reproducibility of Results, Thromboembolism, United Kingdom