Revisiting the Links Between Asthma and the Psychosis Spectrum: shared molecular mechanisms.
Asthma and psychosis spectrum conditions share 16 genes, not a causal link
Revisiting the Links Between Asthma and the Psychosis Spectrum: shared molecular mechanisms.
Epidemiological studies suggest associations of asthma with the psychosis spectrum (psychotic experiences, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia), but the mechanisms underlying these associations remain unclear.
We examined the relationship between asthma and psychosis-related outcomes using observational cohort, polygenic score, and Mendelian randomization (mendelian randomization) analyses, and assessed the possibility of shared genetic underpinnings between these traits using genetic colocalisation.
Results from a UK population-based prospective birth cohort suggest that asthma at age 7 and polygenic risk for asthma are associated with psychotic experiences in early adulthood.
Results from two-sample mendelian randomization analyses do not support causal relationships of genetic liability to asthma with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
Instead, genetic correlation and colocalization analyses point to the presence of shared genetic etiology between the conditions.
We identified 8 genomic regions with potentially shared causal genes between asthma and bipolar disorder or asthma and schizophrenia.
Our results suggest that population-level associations of asthma with psychosis spectrum conditions could be due to shared molecular mechanisms involving fatty acid metabolism, ion channel activity, and iron homeostasis.