Proteogenomic analysis integrated with electronic health records data reveals disease-associated variants in Black Americans.

Background: Most genome wide association studies (GWAS) of plasma proteomics have focused on White individuals of European ancestry, limiting biological insight from other ancestry enriched protein quantitative loci (pQTL).

Methods: We conducted a discovery GWAS of ~3,000 plasma proteins measured by the antibody based Olink platform in 1,054 Black adults from the Jackson Heart Study (JHS), and validated our findings in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). The genetic architecture of identified pQTLs were further explored through fine mapping and admixture association analysis. Finally, using our pQTL findings, we performed a phenome wide association study (PheWAS) across two large multi-ethnic electronic health record (EHR) systems in All of Us and BioMe.

Results: We identified 1002 pQTLs for 925 proteins. Fine mapping and admixture analyses suggested allelic heterogeneity of the plasma proteome across diverse populations. We identified associations for variants enriched in African ancestry, many in diseases that lack precise biomarkers, including cis-pQTLs for Cathepsin L (CTSL) and Siglec-9 that were linked with sarcoidosis and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, respectively. We found concordant associations across clinical diagnoses and laboratory measurements, elucidating disease pathways, including a cis-pQTL associated with circulating CD58, white blood cell count, and multiple sclerosis.

Conclusions: Our findings emphasize the value of leveraging diverse populations to enhance biological insights from proteomics GWAS, and we have made this resource readily available as an interactive web portal.