Novel Genetic Loci Associated with Osteoarthritis in Multi-Ancestry Analyses in 484,374 Participants from MVP and the UK Biobank

Abstract

To date there have been no large multi ancestry genetic studies of osteoarthritis (OA). We leveraged the unique resources of 484,374 participants in the Million Veteran Program (MVP) and UK Biobank to address this gap. Analyses included participants of European, African, Asian and Hispanic descent. We discovered OA associated genetic variation in 10 loci and replicated association findings from previous OA studies. We also present evidence some OA-associated regions are robust to population ancestry. Drug repurposing analyses revealed enrichment of targets of several medication classes and provide potential insight to etiology of beneficial effects of antiepileptics on OA pain.