Thread by @elladavyson

Happy to share my 1st paper, in @BiologicalPsyc1! We investigated the links between 249 circulating metabolites & Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in @uk_biobank. A thread 🧵 of our main findings:👇

Firstly, a Metabolome Wide Association Study (MetWAS) found that 129 (~ 52%) of metabolites were significantly associated with MDD.

We ran GWAS on all metabolites & found that 144 (57 %) shared a significant genetic correlation with MDD ranging from (−) 0.073 (omega-3 fatty acids to total fatty acids) to (+) 0.180 (phospholipids to total lipids in large high-density lipoprotein)

Using our GWAS findings & results from @PGCgenetics, Mendelian Randomisation found 5 measures potentially causally associated with #depression liability.

Genetic associations for an omega-3 fatty acid, docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) colocalised with those for #depression at SNV rs2727271, an intronic variant for the fatty acid desaturase 2 (FADS2) gene.

Overall, these findings indicate a possible protective role for DHA in #depression

Read more: biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-…
Coding scripts are available on Github (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7788316), and the metabolite GWAS’ are being uploaded onto @GWASCatalog, which we hope will be a useful resource for others.

Finally, thank you to all my coauthors @ShenXueyi , @mja , @mcintosh2001 , @MarioniGroup , @elenabernabio and @RobertHillary, and of course to all the participants in the @ukbiobank!