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Zhang L, Wang F, Xia K, Yu Z, Fu Y, Huang T, Fan D. Unlocking the Medicinal Mysteries: Preventing Lacunar Stroke with Drug Repurposing. Biomedicines 2023; 12:17. [PMID: 38275377 PMCID: PMC10813761 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines12010017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2023] [Revised: 12/10/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Currently, only the general control of the risk factors is known to prevent lacunar cerebral infarction, but it is unknown which type of medication for controlling the risk factors has a causal relationship with reducing the risk of lacunar infarction. To unlock this medical mystery, drug-target Mendelian randomization analysis was applied to estimate the effect of common antihypertensive agents, hypolipidemic agents, and hypoglycemic agents on lacunar stroke. Lacunar stroke data for the transethnic analysis were derived from meta-analyses comprising 7338 cases and 254,798 controls. We have confirmed that genetic variants mimicking calcium channel blockers were found to most stably prevent lacunar stroke. The genetic variants at or near HMGCR, NPC1L1, and APOC3 were predicted to decrease lacunar stroke incidence in drug-target MR analysis. These variants mimic the effects of statins, ezetimibe, and antisense anti-apoC3 agents, respectively. Genetically proxied GLP1R agonism had a marginal effect on lacunar stroke, while a genetically proxied improvement in overall glycemic control was associated with reduced lacunar stroke risk. Here, we show that certain categories of drugs currently used in clinical practice can more effectively reduce the risk of stroke. Repurposing several drugs with well-established safety and low costs for lacunar stroke prevention should be given high priority when doctors are making decisions in clinical practice. This may contribute to healthier brain aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linjing Zhang
- Department of Neurology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China; (L.Z.); (F.W.); (K.X.); (Z.Y.); (Y.F.)
| | - Fan Wang
- Department of Neurology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China; (L.Z.); (F.W.); (K.X.); (Z.Y.); (Y.F.)
| | - Kailin Xia
- Department of Neurology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China; (L.Z.); (F.W.); (K.X.); (Z.Y.); (Y.F.)
| | - Zhou Yu
- Department of Neurology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China; (L.Z.); (F.W.); (K.X.); (Z.Y.); (Y.F.)
| | - Yu Fu
- Department of Neurology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China; (L.Z.); (F.W.); (K.X.); (Z.Y.); (Y.F.)
| | - Tao Huang
- Department of Neurology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China; (L.Z.); (F.W.); (K.X.); (Z.Y.); (Y.F.)
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Intelligent Public Health, Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Dongsheng Fan
- Department of Neurology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China; (L.Z.); (F.W.); (K.X.); (Z.Y.); (Y.F.)
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Biomarker and Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Beijing 100191, China
- Key Laboratory for Neuroscience, National Health Commission/Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
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Yarmolinsky J, Bouras E, Constantinescu A, Burrows K, Bull CJ, Vincent EE, Martin RM, Dimopoulou O, Lewis SJ, Moreno V, Vujkovic M, Chang KM, Voight BF, Tsao PS, Gunter MJ, Hampe J, Pellatt AJ, Pharoah PDP, Schoen RE, Gallinger S, Jenkins MA, Pai RK, Gill D, Tsilidis KK. Genetically proxied glucose-lowering drug target perturbation and risk of cancer: a Mendelian randomisation analysis. Diabetologia 2023; 66:1481-1500. [PMID: 37171501 PMCID: PMC10317892 DOI: 10.1007/s00125-023-05925-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2022] [Accepted: 03/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
AIMS/HYPOTHESIS Epidemiological studies have generated conflicting findings on the relationship between glucose-lowering medication use and cancer risk. Naturally occurring variation in genes encoding glucose-lowering drug targets can be used to investigate the effect of their pharmacological perturbation on cancer risk. METHODS We developed genetic instruments for three glucose-lowering drug targets (peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ [PPARG]; sulfonylurea receptor 1 [ATP binding cassette subfamily C member 8 (ABCC8)]; glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor [GLP1R]) using summary genetic association data from a genome-wide association study of type 2 diabetes in 148,726 cases and 965,732 controls in the Million Veteran Program. Genetic instruments were constructed using cis-acting genome-wide significant (p<5×10-8) SNPs permitted to be in weak linkage disequilibrium (r2<0.20). Summary genetic association estimates for these SNPs were obtained from genome-wide association study (GWAS) consortia for the following cancers: breast (122,977 cases, 105,974 controls); colorectal (58,221 cases, 67,694 controls); prostate (79,148 cases, 61,106 controls); and overall (i.e. site-combined) cancer (27,483 cases, 372,016 controls). Inverse-variance weighted random-effects models adjusting for linkage disequilibrium were employed to estimate causal associations between genetically proxied drug target perturbation and cancer risk. Co-localisation analysis was employed to examine robustness of findings to violations of Mendelian randomisation (MR) assumptions. A Bonferroni correction was employed as a heuristic to define associations from MR analyses as 'strong' and 'weak' evidence. RESULTS In MR analysis, genetically proxied PPARG perturbation was weakly associated with higher risk of prostate cancer (for PPARG perturbation equivalent to a 1 unit decrease in inverse rank normal transformed HbA1c: OR 1.75 [95% CI 1.07, 2.85], p=0.02). In histological subtype-stratified analyses, genetically proxied PPARG perturbation was weakly associated with lower risk of oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (OR 0.57 [95% CI 0.38, 0.85], p=6.45×10-3). In co-localisation analysis, however, there was little evidence of shared causal variants for type 2 diabetes liability and cancer endpoints in the PPARG locus, although these analyses were likely underpowered. There was little evidence to support associations between genetically proxied PPARG perturbation and colorectal or overall cancer risk or between genetically proxied ABCC8 or GLP1R perturbation with risk across cancer endpoints. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION Our drug target MR analyses did not find consistent evidence to support an association of genetically proxied PPARG, ABCC8 or GLP1R perturbation with breast, colorectal, prostate or overall cancer risk. Further evaluation of these drug targets using alternative molecular epidemiological approaches may help to further corroborate the findings presented in this analysis. DATA AVAILABILITY Summary genetic association data for select cancer endpoints were obtained from the public domain: breast cancer ( https://bcac.ccge.medschl.cam.ac.uk/bcacdata/ ); and overall prostate cancer ( http://practical.icr.ac.uk/blog/ ). Summary genetic association data for colorectal cancer can be accessed by contacting GECCO (kafdem at fredhutch.org). Summary genetic association data on advanced prostate cancer can be accessed by contacting PRACTICAL (practical at icr.ac.uk). Summary genetic association data on type 2 diabetes from Vujkovic et al (Nat Genet, 2020) can be accessed through dbGAP under accession number phs001672.v3.p1 (pha004945.1 refers to the European-specific summary statistics). UK Biobank data can be accessed by registering with UK Biobank and completing the registration form in the Access Management System (AMS) ( https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/enable-your-research/apply-for-access ).
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Affiliation(s)
- James Yarmolinsky
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | - Emmanouil Bouras
- Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina Medical School, Ioannina, Greece
| | - Andrei Constantinescu
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Kimberley Burrows
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Caroline J Bull
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- School of Translational Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Emma E Vincent
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- School of Translational Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Richard M Martin
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Olympia Dimopoulou
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Sarah J Lewis
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Victor Moreno
- Biomarkers and Susceptibility Unit, Oncology Data Analytics Program, Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
- Colorectal Cancer Group, ONCOBELL Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
- Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marijana Vujkovic
- Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Kyong-Mi Chang
- Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Benjamin F Voight
- Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Philip S Tsao
- VA Palo Alto Epidemiology Research and Information Center for Genomics, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Marc J Gunter
- Nutrition and Metabolism Section, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, Lyon, France
| | - Jochen Hampe
- Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Dresden, Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden), Dresden, Germany
| | | | - Paul D P Pharoah
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Robert E Schoen
- Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Steven Gallinger
- Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Mark A Jenkins
- Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Rish K Pai
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
| | - Dipender Gill
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, London, UK
| | - Kostas K Tsilidis
- Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina Medical School, Ioannina, Greece
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, London, UK
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Cronjé HT, Karhunen V, Hovingh GK, Coppieters K, Lagerstedt JO, Nyberg M, Gill D. Genetic evidence implicating natriuretic peptide receptor-3 in cardiovascular disease risk: a Mendelian randomization study. BMC Med 2023; 21:158. [PMID: 37101178 PMCID: PMC10134514 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-023-02867-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 04/28/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) is a known target for promoting growth and has been implicated as a therapeutic opportunity for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to explore the effect of CNP on CVD risk using the Mendelian randomization (MR) framework. METHODS Instrumental variables mimicking the effects of pharmacological intervention on CNP were identified as uncorrelated genetic variants located in the genes coding for its primary receptors, natriuretic peptide receptors-2 and 3 (NPR2 and NPR3), that associated with height. We performed MR and colocalization analyses to investigate the effects of NPR2 signalling and NPR3 function on CVD outcomes and risk factors. MR estimates were compared to those obtained when considering height variants from throughout the genome. RESULTS Genetically-proxied reduced NPR3 function was associated with a lower risk of CVD, with odds ratio (OR) 0.74 per standard deviation (SD) higher NPR3-predicted height, and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.64-0.86. This effect was greater in magnitude than observed when considering height variants from throughout the genome. For CVD subtypes, similar MR associations for NPR3-predicted height were observed when considering the outcomes of coronary artery disease (0.75, 95% CI 0.60-0.92), stroke (0.69, 95% CI 0.50-0.95) and heart failure (0.77, 95% CI 0.58-1.02). Consideration of CVD risk factors identified systolic blood pressure (SBP) as a potential mediator of the NPR3-related CVD risk lowering. For stroke, we found that the MR estimate for NPR3 was greater in magnitude than could be explained by a genetically predicted SBP effect alone. Colocalization results largely supported the MR findings, with no evidence of results being driven by effects due to variants in linkage disequilibrium. There was no MR evidence supporting effects of NPR2 on CVD risk, although this null finding could be attributable to fewer genetic variants being identified to instrument this target. CONCLUSIONS This genetic analysis supports the cardioprotective effects of pharmacologically inhibiting NPR3 receptor function, which is only partly mediated by an effect on blood pressure. There was unlikely sufficient statistical power to investigate the cardioprotective effects of NPR2 signalling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Héléne T Cronjé
- Department of Public Health, Section of Epidemiology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Ville Karhunen
- Faculty of Science, Research Unit of Mathematical Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
- Research Unit of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - G Kees Hovingh
- Department of Vascular Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Global Chief Medical Office, Novo Nordisk, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ken Coppieters
- Global Project Management, Global Drug Discovery, Novo Nordisk, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jens O Lagerstedt
- Rare Endocrine Disorders, Research and Early Development, Novo Nordisk, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University, 221 84, Lund, Sweden
| | - Michael Nyberg
- Vascular Biology, Research and Early Development, Novo Nordisk, Maaloev, Denmark
| | - Dipender Gill
- Chief Scientific Advisor Office, Research and Early Development, Novo Nordisk, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
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Daghlas I, Gill D. Mendelian randomization as a tool to inform drug development using human genetics. CAMBRIDGE PRISMS. PRECISION MEDICINE 2023; 1:e16. [PMID: 38550933 PMCID: PMC10953771 DOI: 10.1017/pcm.2023.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2022] [Revised: 01/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 04/11/2024]
Abstract
Drug development is essential to the advancement of human health, however, the process is slow, costly, and at high risk of failure at all stages. A promising strategy for expediting and improving the probability of success in the drug development process is the use of naturally randomized human genetic variation for drug target identification and validation. These data can be harnessed using the Mendelian randomization (MR) analytic paradigm to proxy the lifelong consequences of genetic perturbations of drug targets. In this review, we discuss the myriad applications of the MR paradigm for human drug target identification and validation. We review the methodology and applications of MR, key limitations of MR, and potential future opportunities for research. Throughout the review, we refer to illustrative examples of MR analyses investigating the consequences of genetic inhibition of interleukin 6 signaling which, in some cases, have anticipated results from randomized controlled trials. As human genetic data become more widely available, we predict that MR will serve as a key pillar of support for drug development efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iyas Daghlas
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Dipender Gill
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Chief Scientific Advisor Office, Research and Early Development, Novo Nordisk, Copenhagen, Denmark
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