pQTL GWAS association data for ACE2 in plasma from INTERVAL study

Genetic association estimates with circulating plasma ACE2 levels were obtained in a subcohort of 4,998 blood donors enrolled in the INTERVAL study. Plasma ACE2 levels were measured using a multiplex proximity extension immunoassay (Cardiovascular 2 panel, Olink Bioscience, Uppsala, Sweden). A total of 4,947 samples passed quality control. The data were pre-processed using standard Olink workflows including applying median centring normalization across plates, where the median is centred to the overall median for all plates, followed by log2 transformation to provide normalized protein levels (NPX). NPX values were regressed on age, sex, plate, time from blood draw to processing (in days), and season. The residuals were then rank-inverse normalized. Genotype data was processed as described previously. Genome-wide pQTL analysis was performed by linear regression of the rank-inverse normalized residuals on genotype in SNPTEST, with the first three components of multi-dimensional scaling as covariates to adjust for ancestry. <br>