Genetic overlap between multiple sclerosis and several cardiovascular disease risk factors

Background: Epidemiological findings suggest a relationship between multiple sclerosis (MS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, although the nature of this relationship is not well understood. Objective: We used genome-wide association study (GWAS) data to identify shared genetic factors (pleiotropy) between MS and CVD risk factors. Methods: Using summary statistics from a large, recent GWAS (total n > 250,000 individuals), we investigated overlap in single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with MS and a number of CVD risk factors including triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, type 2 diabetes, systolic blood pressure, and C-reactive protein level. Results and conclusion: Using conditional enrichment plots, we found 30-fold enrichment of MS SNPs for different levels of association with LDL and TG SNPs, with a corresponding reduction in conditional false discovery rate (FDR). We identified 133 pleiotropic loci outside the extended major histocompatibility complex with conditional FDR