Evidence that the pituitary gland connects type 2 diabetes mellitus and schizophrenia based on large-scale trans-ethnic genetic analyses

BACKGROUND: Previous studies on European (EUR) samples have obtained inconsistent results regarding the genetic correlation between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and Schizophrenia (SCZ). A large-scale trans-ethnic genetic analysis may provide additional evidence with enhanced power. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore the genetic basis for both T2DM and SCZ based on large-scale genetic analyses of genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from both East Asian (EAS) and EUR subjects. METHODS: A range of complementary approaches were employed to cross-validate the genetic correlation between T2DM and SCZ at the whole genome, autosomes (linkage disequilibrium score regression, LDSC), loci (Heritability Estimation from Summary Statistics, HESS), and causal variants (MiXeR and Mendelian randomization, MR) levels. Then, genome-wide and transcriptome-wide cross-trait/ethnic meta-analyses were performed separately to explore the effective shared organs, cells and molecular pathways. RESULTS: A weak genome-wide negative genetic correlation between SCZ and T2DM was found for the EUR (r(g) = − 0.098, P = 0.009) and EAS (r(g) =- 0.053 and P = 0.032) populations, which showed no significant difference between the EUR and EAS populations (P = 0.22). After Bonferroni correction, the r(g) remained significant only in the EUR population. Similar results were obtained from analyses at the levels of autosomes, loci and causal variants. 25 independent variants were firstly identified as being responsible for both SCZ and T2DM. The variants associated with the two disorders were significantly correlated to the gene expression profiles in the brain (P = 1.1E-9) and pituitary gland (P = 1.9E-6). Then, 61 protein-coding and non-coding genes were identified as effective genes in the pituitary gland (P < 9.23E-6) and were enriched in metabolic pathways related to glutathione mediated arsenate detoxification and to D-myo-inositol-trisphosphate. CONCLUSION: Here, we show that a negative genetic correlation exists between SCZ and T2DM at the whole genome, autosome, locus and causal variant levels. We identify pituitary gland as a common effective organ for both diseases, in which non-protein-coding effective genes, such as lncRNAs, may be responsible for the negative genetic correlation. This highlights the importance of molecular metabolism and neuroendocrine modulation in the pituitary gland, which may be responsible for the initiation of T2DM in SCZ patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12967-022-03704-0.