CD4 and carotid atherosclerosis: In other types of atherosclerosis, all 11 causal proteins (PCSK9, LPA, IL6R, TGFB1, SPARCL1, CELSR2, CD4, FN1, APOA5, APOE, and AGER) were found to be associated with the risk of atherosclerosis, excluding coronary and carotid atherosclerosis, and two proteins (IL6R, APOE) were associated with the risk of carotid atherosclerosis (Figure 1b).