Genome-wide association study identifies human genetic variants associated with systemic chronic inflammation
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
Chronic low-grade inflammation has been identified as the etiology of disease across the life span; however, the underlying genetic mechanism are poorly understood, and no genetic association study is performed. Here, we quantified chronic low-grade inflammation using the low-grade inflammation score (INFLA-score) and performed a genome-wide association study in a large European cohort of 217,984 individuals, involving 6,134,151 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We identified 20,182 SNPs at 194 loci reaching genome-wide significance (p < 5 × 10−8), with the lead SNP rs429358 in apolipoprotein E (APOE) showing an extremely low p-value of 8.69 × 10−166. Gene analysis found 470 genes with p < 2.70 × 10−6 (0.05/18,519), among which phosphodiesterase 4B was most significant (p = 1.67 × 10−22). Among those, 15 SNPs were first reported, including GS1-259H13.10, AC068533.7, AL355490.1, and so on. Tissue expression analysis revealed significant links between genetic variants and chronic low-grade inflammation in spleen and whole blood. Our findings identify variants linked to chronic low-grade inflammation and related inflammatory and cellular regulation traits, and suggest a close association between chronic low-grade inflammation and the spleen.
Keywords
genome-wide association study, systemic chronic inflammation, tissue expression, UK biobank
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
E-ISSN
15578100
ISSN
15362310
PubMed ID
42275006
Publication Title
OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology
Publisher
Sage
School
Centre for Precision Health
RAS ID
101665
Copyright
subscription content
Recommended Citation
Xue, J., Sun, W., Liu, P., Wang, J., & Wang, Y. (2026). Genome-wide association study identifies human genetic variants associated with systemic chronic inflammation. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, 30(8), 449–458. https://doi.org/10.1177/15578100261458847