Positive control results showed that upregulated HMGCR gene expression significantly increased the expression of LDL cholesterol (Additional file 1: Table S5), and elevated HMGCR gene expression in GWAS data related to LDL cholesterol demonstrated a causal association with a notably heightened risk of coronary atherosclerosis (Additional file 1: Table S6). Here, HMGCR is linked to coronary atherosclerosis.