AN is influenced by genetic and environmental factors, with twin studies estimating heritability at 56% (Bulik et al., 2006), and common variants are now shown to account for around 10–20% of liability scale heritability through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) (Hirtz & Hinney, 2020). The most recent AN GWAS uncovered eight independent genome-wide associated loci (Watson et al., 2019). GWAS present an opportunity to better understand the biology of AN, as well as potentially identify novel treatment targets and opportunities for drug repurposing (Reay & Cairns, 2021). For example, the latest AN GWAS consolidated the strong genetic overlap between the disorder and systemic metabolic factors like cholesterol and insulin, leading to AN being conceptualised a ‘metabo-psychiatric’ disorder (Adams, Reay, Geaghan, & Cairns, 2021; Watson et al., 2019). An ongoing challenge in the field of AN genetics is to identify key genes and biological systems that are informative to the pathogenesis of the disorder and may be relevant for treatment.
