IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-58357-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A blood- and brain-based EWAS of smoking

Author

Listed:
  • Aleksandra D. Chybowska

    (University of Edinburgh)

  • Elena Bernabeu

    (University of Edinburgh)

  • Paul Yousefi

    (University of Bristol
    University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and University of Bristol
    University of Bristol)

  • Matthew Suderman

    (University of Bristol
    University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and University of Bristol
    University of Bristol)

  • Robert F. Hillary

    (University of Edinburgh)

  • Richard Clark

    (Western General Hospital)

  • Louise MacGillivray

    (Western General Hospital)

  • Lee Murphy

    (Western General Hospital)

  • Sarah E. Harris

    (The University of Edinburgh)

  • Janie Corley

    (The University of Edinburgh)

  • Archie Campbell

    (University of Edinburgh
    University of Edinburgh)

  • Tara L. Spires-Jones

    (University of Edinburgh
    University of Edinburgh)

  • Daniel L. McCartney

    (University of Edinburgh)

  • Simon R. Cox

    (The University of Edinburgh
    A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) Collaboration)

  • Jackie F. Price

    (University of Edinburgh)

  • Kathryn L. Evans

    (University of Edinburgh)

  • Riccardo E. Marioni

    (University of Edinburgh)

Abstract

DNA methylation offers an objective method to assess the impact of smoking. In this work, we conduct a Bayesian EWAS of smoking pack years (n = 17,865, ~850k sites, Illumina EPIC array) and extend it by analysing whole genome data of smokers and non-smokers from Generation Scotland (n = 46, ~4–21 million sites via TWIST and Oxford Nanopore sequencing). We develop mCigarette, an epigenetic biomarker of smoking, and test it in two British cohorts. Results of brain- and blood-based EWAS (nbrain=14, nblood = 882, >450k sites, Illumina arrays) reveal several loci with near-perfect discrimination of smoking status, but which do not overlap across tissues. Furthermore, we perform a GWAS of epigenetic smoking, identifying several smoking-related loci. Overall, we improve smoking-related biomarker accuracy and enhance the understanding of the effects of smoking by integrating DNA methylation data from multiple tissues and cohorts.

Suggested Citation

  • Aleksandra D. Chybowska & Elena Bernabeu & Paul Yousefi & Matthew Suderman & Robert F. Hillary & Richard Clark & Louise MacGillivray & Lee Murphy & Sarah E. Harris & Janie Corley & Archie Campbell & T, 2025. "A blood- and brain-based EWAS of smoking," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58357-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58357-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58357-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-58357-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Friedman, Jerome H. & Hastie, Trevor & Tibshirani, Rob, 2010. "Regularization Paths for Generalized Linear Models via Coordinate Descent," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 33(i01).
    2. Kyoko Watanabe & Erdogan Taskesen & Arjen Bochoven & Danielle Posthuma, 2017. "Functional mapping and annotation of genetic associations with FUMA," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Daniel Trejo Banos & Daniel L. McCartney & Marion Patxot & Lucas Anchieri & Thomas Battram & Colette Christiansen & Ricardo Costeira & Rosie M. Walker & Stewart W. Morris & Archie Campbell & Qian Zhan, 2020. "Bayesian reassessment of the epigenetic architecture of complex traits," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Daniel Trejo Banos & Daniel L. McCartney & Marion Patxot & Lucas Anchieri & Thomas Battram & Colette Christiansen & Ricardo Costeira & Rosie M. Walker & Stewart W. Morris & Archie Campbell & Qian Zhan, 2020. "Author Correction: Bayesian reassessment of the epigenetic architecture of complex traits," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-1, December.
    5. Ho, Daniel & Imai, Kosuke & King, Gary & Stuart, Elizabeth A., 2011. "MatchIt: Nonparametric Preprocessing for Parametric Causal Inference," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 42(i08).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. E. Davyson & X. Shen & F. Huider & M. J. Adams & K. Borges & D. L. McCartney & L. F. Barker & J. Dongen & D. I. Boomsma & A. Weihs & H. J. Grabe & L. Kühn & A. Teumer & H. Völzke & T. Zhu & J. Kaprio , 2025. "Insights from a methylome-wide association study of antidepressant exposure," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Thomas Battram & Tom R. Gaunt & Caroline L. Relton & Nicholas J. Timpson & Gibran Hemani, 2022. "A comparison of the genes and genesets identified by GWAS and EWAS of fifteen complex traits," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Marion Patxot & Daniel Trejo Banos & Athanasios Kousathanas & Etienne J. Orliac & Sven E. Ojavee & Gerhard Moser & Alexander Holloway & Julia Sidorenko & Zoltan Kutalik & Reedik Mägi & Peter M. Vissch, 2021. "Probabilistic inference of the genetic architecture underlying functional enrichment of complex traits," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Liam McAllan & Damir Baranasic & Sergio Villicaña & Scarlett Brown & Weihua Zhang & Benjamin Lehne & Marco Adamo & Andrew Jenkinson & Mohamed Elkalaawy & Borzoueh Mohammadi & Majid Hashemi & Nadia Fer, 2023. "Integrative genomic analyses in adipocytes implicate DNA methylation in human obesity and diabetes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, December.
    5. Tutz, Gerhard & Pößnecker, Wolfgang & Uhlmann, Lorenz, 2015. "Variable selection in general multinomial logit models," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 207-222.
    6. Viet Hoang Dinh & Didier Nibbering & Benjamin Wong, 2023. "Random Subspace Local Projections," CAMA Working Papers 2023-34, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    7. Liao, Chuan & Jung, Suhyun & Brown, Daniel G. & Agrawal, Arun, 2024. "Does land tenure change accelerate deforestation? A matching-based four-country comparison," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    8. Ernesto Carrella & Richard M. Bailey & Jens Koed Madsen, 2018. "Indirect inference through prediction," Papers 1807.01579, arXiv.org.
    9. Rui Wang & Naihua Xiu & Kim-Chuan Toh, 2021. "Subspace quadratic regularization method for group sparse multinomial logistic regression," Computational Optimization and Applications, Springer, vol. 79(3), pages 531-559, July.
    10. Mkhadri, Abdallah & Ouhourane, Mohamed, 2013. "An extended variable inclusion and shrinkage algorithm for correlated variables," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 631-644.
    11. Masakazu Higuchi & Mitsuteru Nakamura & Shuji Shinohara & Yasuhiro Omiya & Takeshi Takano & Daisuke Mizuguchi & Noriaki Sonota & Hiroyuki Toda & Taku Saito & Mirai So & Eiji Takayama & Hiroo Terashi &, 2022. "Detection of Major Depressive Disorder Based on a Combination of Voice Features: An Exploratory Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-13, September.
    12. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2018. "Approximate residual balancing: debiased inference of average treatment effects in high dimensions," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 80(4), pages 597-623, September.
    13. Vincent, Martin & Hansen, Niels Richard, 2014. "Sparse group lasso and high dimensional multinomial classification," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 771-786.
    14. Chen, Le-Yu & Lee, Sokbae, 2018. "Best subset binary prediction," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 206(1), pages 39-56.
    15. Álvarez-Liébana, J. & López-Pérez, A. & González-Manteiga, W. & Febrero-Bande, M., 2025. "A goodness-of-fit test for functional time series with applications to Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    16. Quynh-Lam Tran & Gregorio Benitez & Fadi Shehadeh & Matthew Kaczynski & Eleftherios Mylonakis, 2022. "Clinical Outcomes Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Co-Infection with Rhinovirus and Adenovirus in Adults—A Retrospective Matched Cohort Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-13, December.
    17. Perrot-Dockès Marie & Lévy-Leduc Céline & Chiquet Julien & Sansonnet Laure & Brégère Margaux & Étienne Marie-Pierre & Robin Stéphane & Genta-Jouve Grégory, 2018. "A variable selection approach in the multivariate linear model: an application to LC-MS metabolomics data," Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, De Gruyter, vol. 17(5), pages 1-14, October.
    18. Fan, Jianqing & Jiang, Bai & Sun, Qiang, 2022. "Bayesian factor-adjusted sparse regression," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 230(1), pages 3-19.
    19. Chuliá, Helena & Garrón, Ignacio & Uribe, Jorge M., 2024. "Daily growth at risk: Financial or real drivers? The answer is not always the same," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 762-776.
    20. Natalie DeForest & Yuqi Wang & Zhiyi Zhu & Jacqueline S. Dron & Ryan Koesterer & Pradeep Natarajan & Jason Flannick & Tiffany Amariuta & Gina M. Peloso & Amit R. Majithia, 2024. "Genome-wide discovery and integrative genomic characterization of insulin resistance loci using serum triglycerides to HDL-cholesterol ratio as a proxy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58357-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.