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Genetics meets proteomics: perspectives for large population-based studies

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 22, pages 19–37 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Proteomic analysis of cells, tissues and body fluids has generated valuable insights into the complex processes influencing human biology. Proteins represent intermediate phenotypes for disease and provide insight into how genetic and non-genetic risk factors are mechanistically linked to clinical outcomes. Associations between protein levels and DNA sequence variants that colocalize with risk alleles for common diseases can expose disease-associated pathways, revealing novel drug targets and translational biomarkers. However, genome-wide, population-scale analyses of proteomic data are only now emerging. Here, we review current findings from studies of the plasma proteome and discuss their potential for advancing biomedical translation through the interpretation of genome-wide association analyses. We highlight the challenges faced by currently available technologies and provide perspectives relevant to their future application in large-scale biobank studies.

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Fig. 1: Key concepts of pQTL studies.
Fig. 2: Ways a genetic variant can lead to a pQTL.

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Acknowledgements

K.S. is supported by the Biomedical Research Program at Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar, a programme funded by the Qatar Foundation. J.M.S. is supported by the KTH Center for Applied Precision Medicine funded by the Erling Persson Family Foundation and acknowledges the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation for funding the Human Protein Atlas. J.M.S. and M.I.M. acknowledge the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement no. 115317 (DIRECT), the resources of which are composed of a financial contribution from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme and an EFPIA companies’ in kind contribution. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the UK NHS, the UK NIHR, the UK Department of Health or the Qatar Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biophysics and Physiology, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha, Qatar

    Karsten Suhre

  2. Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Churchill Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Mark I. McCarthy

  3. Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Mark I. McCarthy

  4. Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK

    Mark I. McCarthy

  5. Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, USA

    Mark I. McCarthy

  6. Affinity Proteomics, Science for Life Laboratory, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jochen M. Schwenk

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  1. Karsten Suhre
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Contributions

K.S. and J.M.S. researched data for article. All authors contributed to the discussion of content, writing the article and reviewing/editing the manuscript before submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Karsten Suhre or Jochen M. Schwenk.

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Competing interests

M.I.M. has served on advisory panels for Pfizer, NovoNordisk and Zoe Global, has received honoraria from Merck, Pfizer, NovoNordisk and Eli Lilly, has stock options in Zoe Global and has received research funding from AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Merck, NovoNordisk, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi Aventis, Servier and Takeda. As of June 2019, M.I.M. is an employee of Genentech and holds stock in Roche. K.S. and J.M.S. declare no competing interests.

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Related links

A table of all published GWAS with proteomics: http://www.metabolomix.com/a-table-of-all-published-gwas-with-proteomics/

Human Plasma Proteome Project: https://www.hupo.org/plasma-proteome-project

Human Proteome Map: http://www.humanproteomemap.org

In vitro test systems that have been categorized by the FDA: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/medical-device-databases/clinical-laboratory-improvement-amendments-download-data

MRbase: a database and analytical platform for Mendelian randomization: http://www.mrbase.org

neXtProt, a knowledgebase on human proteins: https://www.nextprot.org

PeptideAtlas: http://www.peptideatlas.org

pGWAS server: connecting genetic risk to disease end points through the human blood plasma proteome: http://proteomics.gwas.eu

PhenoScanner: a database of human genotype-phenotype associations: http://www.phenoscanner.medschl.cam.ac.uk

ProteomeXchange, a consortium to provide coordinated data submission and dissemination of proteomics repositories: http://www.proteomexchange.org

ProteomicsDB: https://www.proteomicsdb.org

SNiPA: a tool for annotating and browsing genetic variants: http://snipa.org

SomaLogic white paper on SOMAmer specificity: https://somalogic.com/technology/our-platform/somamer-specificity/

The Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) browser: https://gnomad.broadinstitute.org/

The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project portal: https://gtexportal.org

The Human Protein Atlas: https://www.proteinatlas.org

The Human Protein Atlas: the proteins actively secreted to human blood: https://www.proteinatlas.org/humanproteome/blood/secreted+to+blood

The NHGRI-EBI catalogue of published genome-wide association studies: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas

Uniprot Proteomes — Homo sapiens: https://www.uniprot.org/proteomes/UP000005640

Supplementary information

Glossary

Colocalization

Two genetic associations are said to be colocalized if the strengths of their statistical associations covary at a genetic locus, suggesting a shared genetic causal variant for the observed associations.

Protein QTLs

(pQTLs). A protein quantitative trait locus (pQTL) is an association of protein levels at a genetic locus; it is often represented by the strongest associating single-nucleotide polymorphism.

pQTL studies

Genome-wide association studies where the dependent variables are the levels of proteins measured using a proteomics approach. The identified loci that associate with protein levels are termed ‘protein quantitative trait loci’ (pQTLs).

Open reading frames

Portions of DNA that can be translated into protein and that are terminated by a stop codon.

Post-translational modifications

Biochemical modification of the primary peptide sequence, typically by covalent addition of a chemical group, such as for phosphorylation and glycosylation. Post-translational modifications can change the accessibility to a protein epitope and potentially influence the binding of affinity reagents.

Data-dependent acquisition

(DDA). A data acquisition mode used in mass spectrometry analysis where only a selected set of peptides with the most intense peptide ions are being fragmented and analysed.

Data-independent acquisition

(DIA). A data acquisition mode used in mass spectrometry analysis where all peptides detected within a particular window of the mass-to-charge ratio are being fragmented and analysed.

Aptamers

Short single-stranded (and possibly modified) nucleotides that are selected from a synthetic library of sequences to recognize a specific target protein (for example, via structural elements) with high affinity.

cis-pQTLs

When a protein quantitative trait locus (pQTL) is at or near the genetic locus that encodes the associated protein; often an ad hoc distance cut-off is used to differentiate cis-pQTLs from trans-pQTLs. A cis-pQTL suggests a direct influence of a genetic variant at that locus on protein expression or turnover.

trans-pQTLs

When a protein quantitative trait locus (pQTL) is distant from the protein-coding gene or on another chromosome. A trans-pQTL indicates an indirect link between the genetic locus and protein expression or turnover.

Linkage disequilibrium

Two genetic loci are in linkage disequilibrium if their genotypes correlate within a population. Lack of recombination between loci results in them commonly being co-inherited as a haplotype.

Mendelian randomization

A method to estimate the unconfounded effect of an exposure (for example, protein level) on an outcome (for example, disease risk) using genetic variation.

Gaussian graphical models

(GGMs). Network representations of the partial correlations between a set of quantitative variables, here the protein levels. Partial correlations used in a protein GGM can be viewed as the amount of pairwise correlation between the levels of two proteins that remains when the contributions of all other proteins are accounted for.

Pleiotropic

A genetic locus is pleiotropic when one or more of its variants is associated with two or more seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits.

Epitope effect

An effect of an epitope-changing variant on the binding properties of affinity reagents with regard to their antigens. A difference in reported antigen recognition may be mistaken for a difference in protein abundance.

Polygenic risk scores

Combined risk scores derived from a weighed combination of genetic associations, possibly including millions of associations.

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Suhre, K., McCarthy, M.I. & Schwenk, J.M. Genetics meets proteomics: perspectives for large population-based studies. Nat Rev Genet 22, 19–37 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-020-0268-2

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