Study Explores Biological and Social Factors Behind Health Differences Between Sexes

An international research team led by Queen Mary University of London’s Precision Healthcare University Research Institute (PHURI) has conducted a large-scale study to understand why health risks, symptoms, and outcomes differ between males and females. The study, published in Nature Communications, analyzed data from the UK Biobank and the Fenland study, examining genetic links between approximately 6,000 proteins and hundreds of diseases in 56,000 males and females.

The analysis revealed that two-thirds of the proteins studied showed different levels between males and females. However, only about 100 out of the 6,000 proteins had differences in the genetic “switches” controlling their levels between the sexes. This suggests that while protein expression varies between males and females, genetics alone does not account for these differences. 

The authors emphasize the need to look beyond genetics and consider other medical factors such as hormones, as well as non-medical influences like occupation, living environment, education, financial status, access to resources, and lifestyle. These factors may also contribute to the observed health differences and should be further investigated.

Lead author Mine Koprulu stated, “For the first time in history, we are able to study human biology at this level of detail-across genes, proteins, and more... Our findings highlight the need to better understand the factors that impact health—at the genetic level and beyond—to create more tailored and equitable healthcare for everyone.”

Senior author Claudia Langenberg added, “Drug development pipelines increasingly incorporate information on genetic differences in protein levels and function and this has led to large investment in human cohorts, such as UK Biobank. From this perspective, better understanding of population differences in the regulation of proteins, such as those between males and females, is essential to guide precision medicine approaches and identify where one size may not fit all. Our results clearly show that with very few exceptions, protein regulating genetic variants identified so far behave in a very similar way in males and females. This provides evidence for an important implicit assumption—that insights arising from studying these variants apply to both sexes.”