Polygenic scores for complex traits are associated with changes in concentration of circulating lipid species

Understanding perturbations in circulating lipid levels that often occur years or decades before clinical symptoms may enhance our understanding of disease mechanisms and provide novel intervention opportunities. Here, we assessed if polygenic scores (PGSs) for complex traits could detect lipid dysfunctions related to the traits and provide new biological insights. We constructed genome-wide PGSs (approximately 1 million genetic variants) for 50 complex traits in 7,169 Finnish individuals with routine clinical lipid profiles and lipidomics measurements (179 lipid species). We identified 678 associations (P < 9.0 × 10⁻⁵) involving 26 traits and 142 lipids. Most of these associations were also validated with the actual phenotype measurements where available (89.5% of 181 associations where the trait was available), suggesting that these associations represent early signs of physiological changes of the traits. We detected many known relationships (e.g., PGS for body mass index (BMI) and lysophospholipids, PGS for type 2 diabetes and triacyglycerols) and those that suggested potential target for prevention strategies (e.g., PGS for venous thromboembolism and arachidonic acid). We also found association of PGS for favorable adiposity with increased sphingomyelins levels, suggesting a probable role of sphingomyelins in increased risk for certain disease, e.g., venous thromboembolism as reported previously, in favorable adiposity despite its favorable metabolic effect. Altogether, our study provides a comprehensive characterization of lipidomic alterations in genetic predisposition for a wide range of complex traits. The study also demonstrates potential of PGSs for complex traits to capture early, presymptomatic lipid alterations, highlighting its utility in understanding disease mechanisms and early disease detection.