scholarly journals The contribution of common genetic risk variants for ADHD to a general factor of childhood psychopathology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabell Brikell ◽  
Henrik Larsson ◽  
Yi Lu ◽  
Erik Pettersson ◽  
Qi Chen ◽  
...  

AbstractAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a heritable neurodevelopmental disorder, with common genetic risk variants implicated in the clinical diagnosis and symptoms of ADHD. However, given evidence of comorbidity and genetic overlap across neurodevelopmental and externalizing conditions, it remains unclear whether these genetic risk variants are ADHD-specific. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between ADHD genetic risks and related neurodevelopmental and externalizing conditions, and to quantify the extent to which any such associations can be attributed to a general genetic liability towards psychopathology. We derived ADHD polygenic risk scores (PRS) for 13,460 children aged 9 and 12 years from the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden, using results from an independent meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of ADHD diagnosis and symptoms. Associations between ADHD PRS, a latent general psychopathology factor, and six latent neurodevelopmental and externalizing factors were estimated using structural equation modelling. ADHD PRS were statistically significantly associated with elevated levels of inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, autistic traits, learning difficulties, oppositional-defiant, and conduct problems (standardized regression coefficients=0.07-0.12). Only the association with specific hyperactivity/impulsivity remained significant after accounting for a general psychopathology factor, on which all symptoms loaded positively (standardized mean loading=0.61, range=0.32-0.91). ADHD PRS simultaneously explained 1% (p-value<0.001) of the variance in the general psychopathology factor and 0.50% (p-value<0.001) in the specific hyperactivity/impulsivity factor. Our results suggest that common genetic risk variants associated with ADHD have largely general pleiotropic effects on neurodevelopmental and externalizing traits in the general population, in addition to a specific association with hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance J. H. C. M. van Laarhoven ◽  
Jessica van Setten ◽  
Joost A. van Herwaarden ◽  
Gerard Pasterkamp ◽  
Dominique P. V. de Kleijn ◽  
...  

AbstractRecent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have discovered ten genetic risk variants for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). To what extent these genetic variants contribute to the pathology of aneurysms is yet unknown. The present study aims to investigate whether genetic risk variants are associated with three clinical features: diameter of aneurysm sac, type of artery and aneurysm related-symptoms in aortic and peripheral aneurysm patients. Aneurysm tissue of 415 patients included in the Aneurysm-Express biobank was used. A best-fit polygenic risk score (PRS) based on previous GWAS effect estimates was modeled for each clinical phenotype. The best-fit PRS (including 272 variants at PT = 0.01015) showed a significant correlation with aneurysm diameter (R2 = 0.019, p = 0.001). No polygenic association was found with clinical symptoms or artery type. In addition, the ten genome-wide significant risk variants for AAA were tested individually, but no associations were observed with any of the clinical phenotypes. All models were corrected for confounders and data was normalized. In conclusion, a weighted PRS of AAA susceptibility explained 1.9% of the phenotypic variation (p = 0.001) in diameter in aneurysm patients. Given our limited sample size, future biobank collaborations need to confirm a potential causal role of susceptibility variants on aneurysmal disease initiation and progression.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisangela Bressan ◽  
Xylena Reed ◽  
Vikas Bansal ◽  
Elizabeth Hutchins ◽  
Melanie M. Cobb ◽  
...  

In the FOUNdational Data INitiative for Parkinsons Disease (FOUNDIN-PD) we sought to produce a multi-layered molecular dataset in a large cohort of 95 Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) lines at multiple timepoints during differentiation to dopaminergic (DA) neurons, a major affected cell type in Parkinsons Disease (PD). The lines are derived from the Parkinsons Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) study that includes both people with PD and unaffected individuals across a wide range of polygenic risk scores (PRS) with both risk variants identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and monogenic causal alleles. We generated genetic, epigenetic, regulatory, transcriptomic, proteomic, and longitudinal cellular imaging data from iPSC-derived DA neurons to understand key molecular relationships between disease associated genetic variation and proximate molecular events in a PD relevant cell-type. Analyses of all data modalities collected in FOUNDIN-PD suggest that the differentiation to DA neurons, while not fully mature, was successful and robust. Interrogation of PD genetic risk in this relevant cellular context may elucidate the functional effects of some of these risk variants alone or in combination with other variants. These data reveal that DA neurons derived from human iPSC provide a valuable cellular context and foundational atlas for modeling PD-related genetic risk. In addition to making the data and analyses for this molecular atlas readily available, we have integrated these data into the browsable FOUNDIN-PD data portal (https://www.foundinpd.org) to be used as a resource for understanding the molecular pathogenesis of PD.


Cancers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Yi-Ying Wu ◽  
Gunnar Johansson ◽  
Carl Wibom ◽  
Thomas Brännström ◽  
Annika Malmström ◽  
...  

Genome-wide association studies have identified 25 germline genetic loci that increase the risk of glioma. The somatic tumor molecular alterations, including IDH-mutation status and 1p/19q co-deletion, have been included into the WHO 2016 classification system for glioma. To investigate how the germline genetic risk variants correlate with the somatic molecular subtypes put forward by WHO, we performed a meta-analysis that combined findings from 330 Swedish cases and 876 controls with two other recent studies. In total, 5,103 cases and 10,915 controls were included. Three categories of associations were found. First, variants in TERT and TP53 were associated with increased risk of all glioma subtypes. Second, variants in CDKN2B-AS1, EGFR, and RTEL1 were associated with IDH-wildtype glioma. Third, variants in CCDC26 (the 8q24 locus), C2orf80 (close to IDH), LRIG1, PHLDB1, ETFA, MAML2 and ZBTB16 were associated with IDH-mutant glioma. We therefore propose three etiopathological pathways in gliomagenesis based on germline variants for future guidance of diagnosis and potential functional targets for therapies. Future prospective clinical trials of patients with suspicion of glioma diagnoses, using the genetic variants as biomarkers, are necessary to disentangle how strongly they can predict glioma diagnosis.


Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hoffmann ◽  
Ziller ◽  
Spengler

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified an increasing number of genetic variants that significantly associate with psychiatric disorders. Despite this wealth of information, our knowledge of which variants causally contribute to disease, how they interact, and even more so of the functions they regulate, is still poor. The availability of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and the advent of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has opened new opportunities to investigate genetic risk variants in living disease-relevant cells. Here, we analyze how this progress has contributed to the analysis of causal relationships between genetic risk variants and neuronal phenotypes, especially in schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). Studies on rare, highly penetrant risk variants have originally led the field, until more recently when the development of (epi-) genetic editing techniques spurred studies on cause-effect relationships between common low risk variants and their associated neuronal phenotypes. This reorientation not only offers new insights, but also raises issues on interpretability. Concluding, we consider potential caveats and upcoming developments in the field of ESC/iPSC-based modeling of causality in psychiatric disorders.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5835
Author(s):  
Maria-Ancuta Jurj ◽  
Mihail Buse ◽  
Alina-Andreea Zimta ◽  
Angelo Paradiso ◽  
Schuyler S. Korban ◽  
...  

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are useful in assessing and analyzing either differences or variations in DNA sequences across the human genome to detect genetic risk factors of diseases prevalent within a target population under study. The ultimate goal of GWAS is to predict either disease risk or disease progression by identifying genetic risk factors. These risk factors will define the biological basis of disease susceptibility for the purposes of developing innovative, preventative, and therapeutic strategies. As single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are often used in GWAS, their relevance for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) will be assessed in this review. Furthermore, as there are different levels and patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) present within different human subpopulations, a plausible strategy to evaluate known SNPs associated with incidence of breast cancer in ethnically different patient cohorts will be presented and discussed. Additionally, a description of GWAS for TNBC will be presented, involving various identified SNPs correlated with miRNA sites to determine their efficacies on either prognosis or progression of TNBC in patients. Although GWAS have identified multiple common breast cancer susceptibility variants that individually would result in minor risks, it is their combined effects that would likely result in major risks. Thus, one approach to quantify synergistic effects of such common variants is to utilize polygenic risk scores. Therefore, studies utilizing predictive risk scores (PRSs) based on known breast cancer susceptibility SNPs will be evaluated. Such PRSs are potentially useful in improving stratification for screening, particularly when combining family history, other risk factors, and risk prediction models. In conclusion, although interpretation of the results from GWAS remains a challenge, the use of SNPs associated with TNBC may elucidate and better contextualize these studies.


Neurology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 90 (18) ◽  
pp. e1605-e1612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tian Ge ◽  
Mert R. Sabuncu ◽  
Jordan W. Smoller ◽  
Reisa A. Sperling ◽  
Elizabeth C. Mormino ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of genetic risk of Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia in the context of β-amyloid (Aβ) accumulation.MethodsWe analyzed data from 702 participants (221 clinically normal, 367 with mild cognitive impairment, and 114 with AD dementia) with genetic data and florbetapir PET available. A subset of 669 participants additionally had longitudinal MRI scans to assess hippocampal volume. Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) were estimated with summary statistics from previous large-scale genome-wide association studies of AD dementia. We examined relationships between APOE ε4 status and PRS with longitudinal Aβ and cognitive and hippocampal volume measurements.ResultsAPOE ε4 was strongly related to baseline Aβ, whereas only weak associations between PRS and baseline Aβ were present. APOE ε4 was additionally related to greater memory decline and hippocampal atrophy in Aβ+ participants. When APOE ε4 was controlled for, PRS was related to cognitive decline in Aβ+ participants. Finally, PRSs were associated with hippocampal atrophy in Aβ− participants and weakly associated with baseline hippocampal volume in Aβ+ participants.ConclusionsGenetic risk factors of AD dementia demonstrate effects related to Aβ, as well as synergistic interactions with Aβ. The specific effect of faster cognitive decline in Aβ+ individuals with higher genetic risk may explain the large degree of heterogeneity in cognitive trajectories among Aβ+ individuals. Consideration of genetic variants in conjunction with baseline Aβ may improve enrichment strategies for clinical trials targeting Aβ+ individuals most at risk for imminent cognitive decline.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Privé ◽  
Hugues Aschard ◽  
Michael G.B. Blum

AbstractPolygenic Risk Scores (PRS) consist in combining the information across many single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a score reflecting the genetic risk of developing a disease. PRS might have a major impact on public health, possibly allowing for screening campaigns to identify high-genetic risk individuals for a given disease. The “Clumping+Thresholding” (C+T) approach is the most common method to derive PRS. C+T uses only univariate genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics, which makes it fast and easy to use. However, previous work showed that jointly estimating SNP effects for computing PRS has the potential to significantly improve the predictive performance of PRS as compared to C+T.In this paper, we present an efficient method to jointly estimate SNP effects, allowing for practical application of penalized logistic regression (PLR) on modern datasets including hundreds of thousands of individuals. Moreover, our implementation of PLR directly includes automatic choices for hyper-parameters. The choice of hyper-parameters for a predictive model is very important since it can dramatically impact its predictive performance. As an example, AUC values range from less than 60% to 90% in a model with 30 causal SNPs, depending on the p-value threshold in C+T.We compare the performance of PLR, C+T and a derivation of random forests using both real and simulated data. PLR consistently achieves higher predictive performance than the two other methods while being as fast as C+T. We find that improvement in predictive performance is more pronounced when there are few effects located in nearby genomic regions with correlated SNPs; for instance, AUC values increase from 83% with the best prediction of C+T to 92.5% with PLR. We confirm these results in a data analysis of a case-control study for celiac disease where PLR and the standard C+T method achieve AUC of 89% and of 82.5%.In conclusion, our study demonstrates that penalized logistic regression can achieve more discriminative polygenic risk scores, while being applicable to large-scale individual-level data thanks to the implementation we provide in the R package bigstatsr.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (35) ◽  
pp. 21813-21820
Author(s):  
Michael Wainberg ◽  
Andrew T. Magis ◽  
John C. Earls ◽  
Jennifer C. Lovejoy ◽  
Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong ◽  
...  

Transitions from health to disease are characterized by dysregulation of biological networks under the influence of genetic and environmental factors, often over the course of years to decades before clinical symptoms appear. Understanding these dynamics has important implications for preventive medicine. However, progress has been hindered both by the difficulty of identifying individuals who will eventually go on to develop a particular disease and by the inaccessibility of most disease-relevant tissues in living individuals. Here we developed an alternative approach using polygenic risk scores (PRSs) based on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for 54 diseases and complex traits coupled with multiomic profiling and found that these PRSs were associated with 766 detectable alterations in proteomic, metabolomic, and standard clinical laboratory measurements (clinical labs) from blood plasma across several thousand mostly healthy individuals. We recapitulated a variety of known relationships (e.g., glutamatergic neurotransmission and inflammation with depression, IL-33 with asthma) and found associations directly suggesting therapeutic strategies (e.g., Ω-6 supplementation and IL-13 inhibition for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and influences on longevity (leukemia inhibitory factor, ceramides). Analytes altered in high-genetic-risk individuals showed concordant changes in disease cases, supporting the notion that PRS-associated analytes represent presymptomatic disease alterations. Our results provide insights into the molecular pathophysiology of a range of traits and suggest avenues for the prevention of health-to-disease transitions.


Thorax ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. thoraxjnl-2020-215624
Author(s):  
Sinjini Sikdar ◽  
Annah B Wyss ◽  
Mi Kyeong Lee ◽  
Thanh T Hoang ◽  
Marie Richards ◽  
...  

RationaleGenome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified numerous loci associated with lower pulmonary function. Pulmonary function is strongly related to smoking and has also been associated with asthma and dust endotoxin. At the individual SNP level, genome-wide analyses of pulmonary function have not identified appreciable evidence for gene by environment interactions. Genetic Risk Scores (GRSs) may enhance power to identify gene–environment interactions, but studies are few.MethodsWe analysed 2844 individuals of European ancestry with 1000 Genomes imputed GWAS data from a case–control study of adult asthma nested within a US agricultural cohort. Pulmonary function traits were FEV1, FVC and FEV1/FVC. Using data from a recent large meta-analysis of GWAS, we constructed a weighted GRS for each trait by combining the top (p value<5×10−9) genetic variants, after clumping based on distance (±250 kb) and linkage disequilibrium (r2=0.5). We used linear regression, adjusting for relevant covariates, to estimate associations of each trait with its GRS and to assess interactions.ResultsEach trait was highly significantly associated with its GRS (all three p values<8.9×10−8). The inverse association of the GRS with FEV1/FVC was stronger for current smokers (pinteraction=0.017) or former smokers (pinteraction=0.064) when compared with never smokers and among asthmatics compared with non-asthmatics (pinteraction=0.053). No significant interactions were observed between any GRS and house dust endotoxin.ConclusionsEvaluation of interactions using GRSs supports a greater impact of increased genetic susceptibility on reduced pulmonary function in the presence of smoking or asthma.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document