PDE4B, variants, traits, and what the research shows

PDE4B - what this gene does

Variants catalogued in PDE4B (phosphodiesterase 4B) cluster most heavily around mental health traits, with additional signals spanning cardiovascular health, rare disease, cancer, and neurological conditions. The trait landscape visible in the available data points primarily to psychiatric and brain-related phenotypes.

Key takeaways

• Mental health is the dominant trait theme: 13 of the top-ranked variants fall under this category
• Additional variants connect to cardiovascular, rare disease, cancer, and neurological trait areas
• Two variants - rs1084490 and rs11208766 - have their own published encyclopedia pages
• All highest-ranked variants share the same magnitude score, suggesting comparable evidence weight
• These are population-level statistical patterns, not individual-level predictions for any person

Notable variants

The highest-magnitude variants (scoring 4.50 on a composite scale combining effect size and evidence strength) include a large mental health cluster: rs1084490, rs11208766, rs12564578, rs12729364, rs1316871, rs2186120, rs35825384, rs4655601, rs61797058, rs61799396, rs6421482, rs6588178, and rs6664699. Outside mental health, rs12743648 maps to a rare disease trait, rs146328487 to cardiovascular, rs2937268 to cancer, and rs564109448 to neurological - each also at magnitude 4.50. One lower-ranked entry, rs1453424766, scores 3.00.

Trait associations

Mental health is the dominant theme, with thirteen of the top-listed variants categorized under this area - including rs1084490, rs11208766, and rs6664699, among others listed in Notable variants above. The breadth of this signal across thirteen independent variants at the same magnitude tier strengthens confidence in its relevance to psychiatric phenotypes. The remaining high-magnitude variants span rare disease (rs12743648), cardiovascular (rs146328487), cancer (rs2937268), and neurological (rs564109448) - each a single-variant signal at the same tier, making those associations preliminary.

Evidence quality

Of 181 total variants on file for this gene, 30 carry prior research summaries; this entry draws on the 20 highest-ranked. All top-listed variants share a magnitude score of 4.50, with one lower-ranked entry (rs1453424766) at 3.00. Published editorial summaries exist for rs1084490 and rs11208766, though specific trait details from those pages were not available in the current input. Without per-variant effect sizes, odds ratios, or cohort sample sizes in the available data, precision claims about any single variant's association strength cannot be made. The thirteen-variant mental health cluster is the most replicated signal visible in the data; all other trait areas rest on single variants and should be treated as preliminary pending independent replication.

What this is NOT

These variants are population-level statistical signals derived from GWAS (genome-wide association studies - large studies that scan many people's genomes to find variants statistically linked to a trait), not deterministic predictors for any individual. This entry does not prescribe, diagnose, or advise any course of action.