Work

Use of Mendelian randomisation to assess potential benefit of clinical intervention

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: Mendelian randomisation is a technique for assessing causal associations in observational data. Genetic variants associated with the risk factor of interest are regarded in a similar way to random assignment in a clinical trial. The difference in the risk factor due to the genetic variation, however, is materially distinct from the change due to any proposed therapeutic intervention and so might affect the outcome differently. Consequently, it can be misleading to generalise the magnitude of a Mendelian randomisation estimate to the effect of a potential intervention on the risk factor in practice. Awareness of the limitations of such estimates is important for the use of Mendelian randomisation in target based drug development

Source: BMJ

DOI: 10.1136/bmj.e7325

Authors: S. Burgess, A. Butterworth, A. Malarstig, S. G. Thompson

Institutions: University of Cambridge, Pfizer (United States)

Language: English

Topic: Genetic Associations and Epidemiology

Subfield: Genetics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: British Heart Foundation