Objective::Animal models of atherosclerosis are used extensively to interrogate molecular mechanisms in serial fashion. We tested whether a novel systems biology approach to integration of preclinical data identifies novel pathways and regulators in human disease.
Approach and Results::
Of 716 articles published in
ATVB
from 1995 to 2019 using the apolipoprotein E knockout mouse to study atherosclerosis, data were extracted from 360 unique studies in which a gene was experimentally perturbed to impact plaque size or composition and analyzed using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software. TREM1 (triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells) signaling and LXR/RXR (liver X receptor/retinoid X receptor) activation were identified as the top atherosclerosis-associated pathways in mice (both
P
<1.93×10
−4
, TREM1 implicated early and LXR/RXR in late atherogenesis). The top upstream regulatory network in mice (sc-58125, a COX2 inhibitor) linked 64.0% of the genes into a single network. The pathways and networks identified in mice were interrogated by testing for associations between the genetically predicted gene expression of each mouse pathway-identified human homolog with clinical atherosclerosis in a cohort of 88 660 human subjects. Homologous human pathways and networks were significantly enriched for gene-atherosclerosis associations (empirical
P
<0.01 for TREM1 and LXR/RXR pathways and COX2 network). This included 12(60.0%) TREM1 pathway genes, 15(53.6%) LXR/RXR pathway genes, and 67(49.3%) COX2 network genes. Mouse analyses predicted, and human study validated, the strong association of COX2 expression (
PTGS2
) with increased likelihood of atherosclerosis (odds ratio, 1.68 per SD of genetically predicted gene expression;
P
=1.07×10
−6
).
Conclusions::PRESCIANT (Preclinical Science Integration and Translation) leverages published preclinical investigations to identify high-confidence pathways, networks, and regulators of human disease.