Plasma proteomic architecture of educational attainment associated with morbidity and mortality - PubMed
5 hours ago
- #Educational Attainment
- #Inflammation
- #Health Disparities
- Higher educational attainment is linked to lower morbidity and mortality, with underlying biological mechanisms explored through plasma proteomics.
- A proteome-wide association study in 43,282 UK Biobank participants identified 599 proteins and 4 network modules associated with education, enriched in inflammation pathways.
- Key inflammatory proteins (IL-6, TNF, CD4) were central in protein-protein interaction networks and showed causal effects via Mendelian randomization from education.
- These proteins were associated with health outcomes, and causal mediation analysis confirmed them as significant mediators in the education-health gradient, especially IL-6.
- The study suggests inflammatory disturbance as a major biological pathway, offering potential targets to address health disparities linked to lower educational attainment.