Transcriptome-wide association study identifies susceptibility genes for rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract Objective To identify rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated susceptibility genes and pathways through integrating genome-wide association study (GWAS) and gene expression profile data. Methods A transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) was conducted by the FUSION software for RA considering EBV-transformed lymphocytes (EL), transformed fibroblasts (TF), peripheral blood (NBL), and whole blood (YBL). GWAS summary data was driven from a large-scale GWAS, involving 5539 autoantibody-positive RA patients and 20,169 controls. The TWAS-identified genes were further validated using the mRNA expression profiles and made a functional exploration. Results TWAS identified 692 genes with P TWAS values