scholarly journals Replication and characterization of CADM2 and MSRA genes on human behavior

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Boutwell ◽  
David Hinds ◽  
Jorim Tielbeek ◽  
Ken K. Ong ◽  
Felix R. Day ◽  
...  

AbstractProgress identifying the genetic determinants of personality has historically been slow, with candidate gene studies and small-scale genome-wide association studies yielding few reproducible results. In the UK Biobank study, genetic variants in CADM2 and MSRA were recently shown to influence risk taking behavior and irritability respectively, representing some of the first genomic loci to be associated with aspects of personality. We extend this observation by performing a personality “phenome-scan” across 16 traits in up to 140,487 participants from 23andMe for these two genes. Heritability estimates for these traits ranged from 5-19%, with both CADM2 and MSRA demonstrating significant effects on multiple personality types. These associations covered all aspects of the big five personality domains, including specific facet traits such as compliance, altruism, anxiety and activity / energy. This study both confirms and extends the original observations, highlighting the role of genetics in aspects of mental health and behavior.

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karoline Kuchenbaecker ◽  
◽  
Nikita Telkar ◽  
Theresa Reiker ◽  
Robin G. Walters ◽  
...  

Abstract Most genome-wide association studies are based on samples of European descent. We assess whether the genetic determinants of blood lipids, a major cardiovascular risk factor, are shared across populations. Genetic correlations for lipids between European-ancestry and Asian cohorts are not significantly different from 1. A genetic risk score based on LDL-cholesterol-associated loci has consistent effects on serum levels in samples from the UK, Uganda and Greece (r = 0.23–0.28, p < 1.9 × 10−14). Overall, there is evidence of reproducibility for ~75% of the major lipid loci from European discovery studies, except triglyceride loci in the Ugandan samples (10% of loci). Individual transferable loci are identified using trans-ethnic colocalization. Ten of fourteen loci not transferable to the Ugandan population have pleiotropic associations with BMI in Europeans; none of the transferable loci do. The non-transferable loci might affect lipids by modifying food intake in environments rich in certain nutrients, which suggests a potential role for gene-environment interactions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 3771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeong Jung ◽  
Yoon Kim ◽  
Mridula Bhalla ◽  
Sung Lee ◽  
Jinsoo Seo

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that represents a major cause of death in many countries. AD is characterized by profound memory loss, disruptions in thinking and reasoning, and changes in personality and behavior followed by malfunctions in various bodily systems. Although AD was first identified over 100 years ago, and tremendous efforts have been made to cure the disease, the precise mechanisms underlying the onset of AD remain unclear. The recent development of next-generation sequencing tools and bioinformatics has enabled us to investigate the role of genetics in the pathogenesis of AD. In this review, we discuss novel discoveries in this area, including the results of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that have implicated a number of novel genes as risk factors, as well as the identification of epigenetic regulators strongly associated with the onset and progression of AD. We also review how genetic risk factors may interact with age-associated, progressive decreases in cognitive function in patients with AD.


Author(s):  
Navnit S. Makaram ◽  
Stuart H. Ralston

Abstract Purpose of Review To provide an overview of the role of genes and loci that predispose to Paget’s disease of bone and related disorders. Recent Findings Studies over the past ten years have seen major advances in knowledge on the role of genetic factors in Paget’s disease of bone (PDB). Genome wide association studies have identified six loci that predispose to the disease whereas family based studies have identified a further eight genes that cause PDB. This brings the total number of genes and loci implicated in PDB to fourteen. Emerging evidence has shown that a number of these genes also predispose to multisystem proteinopathy syndromes where PDB is accompanied by neurodegeneration and myopathy due to the accumulation of abnormal protein aggregates, emphasising the importance of defects in autophagy in the pathogenesis of PDB. Summary Genetic factors play a key role in the pathogenesis of PDB and the studies in this area have identified several genes previously not suspected to play a role in bone metabolism. Genetic testing coupled to targeted therapeutic intervention is being explored as a way of halting disease progression and improving outcome before irreversible skeletal damage has occurred.


Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Dichgans ◽  
Nathalie Beaufort ◽  
Stephanie Debette ◽  
Christopher D. Anderson

The field of medical and population genetics in stroke is moving at a rapid pace and has led to unanticipated opportunities for discovery and clinical applications. Genome-wide association studies have highlighted the role of specific pathways relevant to etiologically defined subtypes of stroke and to stroke as a whole. They have further offered starting points for the exploration of novel pathways and pharmacological strategies in experimental systems. Mendelian randomization studies continue to provide insights in the causal relationships between exposures and outcomes and have become a useful tool for predicting the efficacy and side effects of drugs. Additional applications that have emerged from recent discoveries include risk prediction based on polygenic risk scores and pharmacogenomics. Among the topics currently moving into focus is the genetics of stroke outcome. While still at its infancy, this field is expected to boost the development of neuroprotective agents. We provide a brief overview on recent progress in these areas.


Author(s):  
Jack W. O’Sullivan ◽  
John P. A. Ioannidis

AbstractWith the establishment of large biobanks, discovery of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) that are associated with various phenotypes has been accelerated. An open question is whether SNPs identified with genome-wide significance in earlier genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are replicated also in later GWAS conducted in biobanks. To address this question, the authors examined a publicly available GWAS database and identified two, independent GWAS on the same phenotype (an earlier, “discovery” GWAS and a later, replication GWAS done in the UK biobank). The analysis evaluated 136,318,924 SNPs (of which 6,289 had reached p<5e-8 in the discovery GWAS) from 4,397,962 participants across nine phenotypes. The overall replication rate was 85.0% and it was lower for binary than for quantitative phenotypes (58.1% versus 94.8% respectively). There was a18.0% decrease in SNP effect size for binary phenotypes, but a 12.0% increase for quantitative phenotypes. Using the discovery SNP effect size, phenotype trait (binary or quantitative), and discovery p-value, we built and validated a model that predicted SNP replication with area under the Receiver Operator Curve = 0.90. While non-replication may often reflect lack of power rather than genuine false-positive findings, these results provide insights about which discovered associations are likely to be seen again across subsequent GWAS.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 490-500
Author(s):  
A. O. Konradi

The article reviews monogenic forms of hypertension, data on the role of heredity of essential hypertension and candidate genes, as well as genome-wide association studies. Modern approach for the role of genetics is driven by implementation of new technologies and their productivity. High performance speed of new technologies like genome-wide association studies provide data for better knowledge of genetic markers of hypertension. The major goal nowadays for research is to reveal molecular pathways of blood pressure regulation, which can help to move from populational to individual level of understanding of pathogenesis and treatment targets.


2021 ◽  
Vol 135 (15) ◽  
pp. 1929-1944
Author(s):  
Ezekiel Gonzalez-Fernandez ◽  
Yedan Liu ◽  
Alexander P. Auchus ◽  
Fan Fan ◽  
Richard J. Roman

Abstract The accumulation of extracellular amyloid-β (Aβ) and intracellular hyperphosphorylated τ proteins in the brain are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Much of the research into the pathogenesis of AD has focused on the amyloid or τ hypothesis. These hypotheses propose that Aβ or τ aggregation is the inciting event in AD that leads to downstream neurodegeneration, inflammation, brain atrophy and cognitive impairment. Multiple drugs have been developed and are effective in preventing the accumulation and/or clearing of Aβ or τ proteins. However, clinical trials examining these therapeutic agents have failed to show efficacy in preventing or slowing the progression of the disease. Thus, there is a need for fresh perspectives and the evaluation of alternative therapeutic targets in this field. Epidemiology studies have revealed significant overlap between cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, atherosclerosis and stroke to the development of cognitive impairment. This strong correlation has given birth to a renewed focus on vascular contributions to AD and related dementias. However, few genes and mechanisms have been identified. 20-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) is a potent vasoconstrictor that plays a complex role in hypertension, autoregulation of cerebral blood flow and blood–brain barrier (BBB) integrity. Multiple human genome-wide association studies have linked mutations in the cytochrome P450 (CYP) 4A (CYP4A) genes that produce 20-HETE to hypertension and stroke. Most recently, genetic variants in the enzymes that produce 20-HETE have also been linked to AD in human population studies. This review examines the emerging role of 20-HETE in AD and related dementias.


Author(s):  
Denis Awany ◽  
Emile R Chimusa

Abstract As we observe the $70$th anniversary of the publication by Robertson that formalized the notion of ‘heritability’, geneticists remain puzzled by the problem of missing/hidden heritability, where heritability estimates from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) fall short of that from twin-based studies. Many possible explanations have been offered for this discrepancy, including existence of genetic variants poorly captured by existing arrays, dominance, epistasis and unaccounted-for environmental factors; albeit these remain controversial. We believe a substantial part of this problem could be solved or better understood by incorporating the host’s microbiota information in the GWAS model for heritability estimation and may also increase human traits prediction for clinical utility. This is because, despite empirical observations such as (i) the intimate role of the microbiome in many complex human phenotypes, (ii) the overlap between genetic variants associated with both microbiome attributes and complex diseases and (iii) the existence of heritable bacterial taxa, current GWAS models for heritability estimate do not take into account the contributory role of the microbiome. Furthermore, heritability estimate from twin-based studies does not discern microbiome component of the observed total phenotypic variance. Here, we summarize the concept of heritability in GWAS and microbiome-wide association studies, focusing on its estimation, from a statistical genetics perspective. We then discuss a possible statistical method to incorporate the microbiome in the estimation of heritability in host GWAS.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 765-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Cruz ◽  
Ricardo Pinto ◽  
Margarida Freitas-Silva ◽  
José Pedro Nunes ◽  
Rui Medeiros

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke are included in a group of complex traits that have been approached regarding of their study by susceptibility genetic determinants. Since 2007, several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) aiming to identify genetic variants modulating AF risk have been conducted. Thus, 11 GWAS have identified 26 SNPs (p < 5 × 10-2), of which 19 reached genome-wide significance (p < 5 × 10-8). From those variants, seven were also associated with cardioembolic stroke and three reached genome-wide significance in stroke GWAS. These associations may shed a light on putative shared etiologic mechanisms between AF and cardioembolic stroke. Additionally, some of these identified variants have been incorporated in genetic risk scores in order to elucidate new approaches of stroke prediction, prevention and treatment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1096
Author(s):  
Jessica Gambardella ◽  
Angela Lombardi ◽  
Marco Bruno Morelli ◽  
John Ferrara ◽  
Gaetano Santulli

Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors (ITPRs) are intracellular calcium release channels located on the endoplasmic reticulum of virtually every cell. Herein, we are reporting an updated systematic summary of the current knowledge on the functional role of ITPRs in human disorders. Specifically, we are describing the involvement of its loss-of-function and gain-of-function mutations in the pathogenesis of neurological, immunological, cardiovascular, and neoplastic human disease. Recent results from genome-wide association studies are also discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document