Commun Biol: Obesity-related biomarkers are the basis for the genetic structure shared by childhood BMI and childhood asthma

Obesity and asthma are common diseases
that are highly burdened by the global population.
Recent studies have shown that obesity in adults is associated with adult-onset asthma, overweight and obesity in children are associated with an increased risk of asthma and wheezing in children, and the underlying mechanism of the link between obesity and asthma remains to be clarified
.
The journal Communications Biology published a study that investigated the shared genetic components between children's body mass index (BMI, n=39620) and childhood asthma (ncase = 10524, ncontrol = 373393
) using large-scale genetic data from the UK Biobank and several other data sources.

GWAS pooled statistics of 9 obesity-related biomarkers were included to evaluate the underlying biological mediators
of obesity and asthma.

A genetic correlation between childhood BMI and childhood asthma was found (Rg = 0.
10, P = 0.
02), while there was zero genetic correlation between adult BMI (n = 371541) and childhood asthma (Rg = -0.
03, P = 0.
21).

Genetic correlation between childhood and adult BMI or asthma is high (i.
e.
, childhood versus adult BMI, Rg = 0.
63, P = 2.
46 ^{× 10-107}; Childhood versus adult-onset asthma, Rg = 0.
64, P = 4.
52 × ^10-43), suggest that genetic structures at different life stages overlap to a large extent, but also have some different genetic components
.

Modelling analyses of genome structure equations provide further evidence that the genetic effect of childhood BMI on child-onset asthma (standardized effect size 0.
17, P = 0.
009) is not driven
by the genetic component of adult BMI.
Bayesian co-regionalization analysis revealed a shared causal variant, rs12436181, which used gene expression data in lung tissue to locate the gene AMN
.

Mendelian randomization showed that the OR in children with a high standard deviation of childhood asthma was 1.
13 (95% CI: 0.
96~1.
34).

Systematic investigations of obesity-related biomarkers have shown that IL-6 and adiponectin are potential biomediators
linking childhood obesity and asthma.

This large-scale genetic study provides evidence that
a unique pathway of childhood obesity may contribute to childhood asthma.
The pathogenesis and prevention methods
of asthma in children are revealed.

Original source:

Xikun Han, Zhaozhong Zhu, et al, Obesity-related biomarkers underlie a shared genetic architecture between childhood body mass index and childhood asthma, Communications Biology, 2022,https ://doi.
org/10.
1038/s42003-022-04070-9.