1. |
- Middeldorp, Christel M., et al.
(author)
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The Early Growth Genetics (EGG) and EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) consortia : design, results and future prospects
- 2019
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In: European Journal of Epidemiology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0393-2990 .- 1573-7284. ; 34:3, s. 279-300
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The impact of many unfavorable childhood traits or diseases, such as low birth weight and mental disorders, is not limited to childhood and adolescence, as they are also associated with poor outcomes in adulthood, such as cardiovascular disease. Insight into the genetic etiology of childhood and adolescent traits and disorders may therefore provide new perspectives, not only on how to improve wellbeing during childhood, but also how to prevent later adverse outcomes. To achieve the sample sizes required for genetic research, the Early Growth Genetics (EGG) and EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) consortia were established. The majority of the participating cohorts are longitudinal population-based samples, but other cohorts with data on early childhood phenotypes are also involved. Cohorts often have a broad focus and collect(ed) data on various somatic and psychiatric traits as well as environmental factors. Genetic variants have been successfully identified for multiple traits, for example, birth weight, atopic dermatitis, childhood BMI, allergic sensitization, and pubertal growth. Furthermore, the results have shown that genetic factors also partly underlie the association with adult traits. As sample sizes are still increasing, it is expected that future analyses will identify additional variants. This, in combination with the development of innovative statistical methods, will provide detailed insight on the mechanisms underlying the transition from childhood to adult disorders. Both consortia welcome new collaborations. Policies and contact details are available from the corresponding authors of this manuscript and/or the consortium websites.
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2. |
- Van Deerlin, Vivian M, et al.
(author)
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Common variants at 7p21 are associated with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 inclusions
- 2010
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In: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 42:3, s. 234-239
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is the second most common cause of presenile dementia. The predominant neuropathology is FTLD with TAR DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) inclusions (FTLD-TDP). FTLD-TDP is frequently familial, resulting from mutations in GRN (which encodes progranulin). We assembled an international collaboration to identify susceptibility loci for FTLD-TDP through a genome-wide association study of 515 individuals with FTLD-TDP. We found that FTLD-TDP associates with multiple SNPs mapping to a single linkage disequilibrium block on 7p21 that contains TMEM106B. Three SNPs retained genome-wide significance following Bonferroni correction (top SNP rs1990622, P = 1.08 x 10(-11); odds ratio, minor allele (C) 0.61, 95% CI 0.53-0.71). The association replicated in 89 FTLD-TDP cases (rs1990622; P = 2 x 10(-4)). TMEM106B variants may confer risk of FTLD-TDP by increasing TMEM106B expression. TMEM106B variants also contribute to genetic risk for FTLD-TDP in individuals with mutations in GRN. Our data implicate variants in TMEM106B as a strong risk factor for FTLD-TDP, suggesting an underlying pathogenic mechanism.
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3. |
- Mosley, Jonathan D., et al.
(author)
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Probing the Virtual Proteome to Identify Novel Disease Biomarkers
- 2018
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In: Circulation. - 1524-4539. ; 138:22, s. 2469-2481
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Proteomic approaches allow measurement of thousands of proteins in a single specimen, which can accelerate biomarker discovery. However, applying these technologies to massive biobanks is not currently feasible because of the practical barriers and costs of implementing such assays at scale. To overcome these challenges, we used a "virtual proteomic" approach, linking genetically predicted protein levels to clinical diagnoses in >40 000 individuals. METHODS: We used genome-wide association data from the Framingham Heart Study (n=759) to construct genetic predictors for 1129 plasma protein levels. We validated the genetic predictors for 268 proteins and used them to compute predicted protein levels in 41 288 genotyped individuals in the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) cohort. We tested associations for each predicted protein with 1128 clinical phenotypes. Lead associations were validated with directly measured protein levels and either low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or subclinical atherosclerosis in the MDCS (Malmö Diet and Cancer Study; n=651). RESULTS: In the virtual proteomic analysis in eMERGE, 55 proteins were associated with 89 distinct diagnoses at a false discovery rate q<0.1. Among these, 13 associations involved lipid (n=7) or atherosclerosis (n=6) phenotypes. We tested each association for validation in MDCS using directly measured protein levels. At Bonferroni-adjusted significance thresholds, levels of apolipoprotein E isoforms were associated with hyperlipidemia, and circulating C-type lectin domain family 1 member B and platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β predicted subclinical atherosclerosis. Odds ratios for carotid atherosclerosis were 1.31 (95% CI, 1.08-1.58; P=0.006) per 1-SD increment in C-type lectin domain family 1 member B and 0.79 (0.66-0.94; P=0.008) per 1-SD increment in platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate a biomarker discovery paradigm to identify candidate biomarkers of cardiovascular and other diseases.
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4. |
- Lill, Christina M., et al.
(author)
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The role of TREM2 R47H as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease
- 2015
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In: Alzheimer's & Dementia. - : Wiley. - 1552-5260 .- 1552-5279. ; 11:12, s. 1407-1416
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A rare variant in TREM2 (p.R47H, rs75932628) was recently reported to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and, subsequently, other neurodegenerative diseases, i.e. frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we comprehensively assessed TREM2 rs75932628 for association with these diseases in a total of 19,940 previously untyped subjects of European descent. These data were combined with those from 28 published data sets by meta-analysis. Furthermore, we tested whether rs75932628 shows association with amyloid beta (Ab42) and total-tau protein levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 828 individuals with AD or mild cognitive impairment. Our data show that rs75932628 is highly significantly associated with the risk of AD across 24,086 AD cases and 148,993 controls of European descent (odds ratio or OR = 2.71, P = 4.67 x 10(-25)). No consistent evidence for association was found between this marker and the risk of FTLD (OR = 2.24, P = .0113 across 2673 cases/9283 controls), PD (OR 5 1.36, P = .0767 across 8311 cases/79,938 controls) and ALS (OR 5 1.41, P = .198 across 5544 cases/7072 controls). Furthermore, carriers of the rs75932628 risk allele showed significantly increased levels of CSF-total-tau (P = .0110) but not Ab42 suggesting that TREM2's role in AD may involve tau dysfunction. (C) 2015 The Alzheimer's Association.
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5. |
- Sawcer, Stephen, et al.
(author)
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Genetic risk and a primary role for cell-mediated immune mechanisms in multiple sclerosis
- 2011
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 476:7359, s. 214-219
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Multiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability. Epidemiological studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals, and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) exerts the greatest individual effect on risk. Modestly powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have enabled more than 20 additional risk loci to be identified and have shown that multiple variants exerting modest individual effects have a key role in disease susceptibility. Most of the genetic architecture underlying susceptibility to the disease remains to be defined and is anticipated to require the analysis of sample sizes that are beyond the numbers currently available to individual research groups. In a collaborative GWAS involving 9,772 cases of European descent collected by 23 research groups working in 15 different countries, we have replicated almost all of the previously suggested associations and identified at least a further 29 novel susceptibility loci. Within the MHC we have refined the identity of the HLA-DRB1 risk alleles and confirmed that variation in the HLA-A gene underlies the independent protective effect attributable to the class I region. Immunologically relevant genes are significantly overrepresented among those mapping close to the identified loci and particularly implicate T-helper-cell differentiation in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis.
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