DNA methylation biomarkers and myopia: a multi-omics study integrating GWAS, mQTL and eQTL data

Background: This study aimed to identify DNA methylation biomarkers associated with myopia using summary-data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR).

Methods: A systematic search of the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases was conducted up to March 27, 2024. SMR analyses were performed to integrate genome-wide association study (GWAS) with methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) studies. The heterogeneity in the dependent instrument (HEIDI) test was utilized to distinguish pleiotropic associations from linkage disequilibrium.

Results: The systematic review identified 26 DNA methylation biomarkers in five studies, with no overlap observed among those identified by different studies. After integrating GWAS with multi-omics data of mQTL and eQTL, six genes were significantly associated with myopia: PRMT6 (cg00944433 and cg15468180), SH3YL1 (cg03299269, cg11361895, and cg13354988), ZKSCAN4 (cg01192291), GATS (cg17830204), NPAT (cg04826772), and UBE2I (cg03545757 and cg08025960).

Conclusions: We identified six methylation biomarkers associated with the risk of myopia that may be helpful to elucidate the etiology mechanisms of myopia. Further experimental validation studies are required to corroborate these findings.