scholarly journals Genome-wide discovered psychosis-risk gene ZNF804A impacts on white matter microstructure in health, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma-Jane Mallas ◽  
Francesco Carletti ◽  
Christopher A. Chaddock ◽  
James Woolley ◽  
Marco M. Picchioni ◽  
...  

Background.Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) have both been associated with reduced microstructural white matter integrity using, as a proxy, fractional anisotropy (FA) detected using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Genetic susceptibility for both illnesses has also been positively correlated in recent genome-wide association studies with allele A (adenine) of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1344706 of the ZNF804A gene. However, little is known about how the genomic linkage disequilibrium region tagged by this SNP impacts on the brain to increase risk for psychosis. This study aimed to assess the impact of this risk variant on FA in patients with SZ, in those with BD and in healthy controls.Methods.230 individuals were genotyped for the rs1344706 SNP and underwent DTI. We used tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) followed by an analysis of variance, with threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE), to assess underlying effects of genotype, diagnosis and their interaction, on FA.Results.As predicted, statistically significant reductions in FA across a widely distributed brain network (p< 0.05, TFCE-corrected) were positively associated both with a diagnosis of SZ or BD and with the double (homozygous) presence of the ZNF804A rs1344706 risk variant (A). The main effect of genotype was medium (d= 0.48 in a 44,054-voxel cluster) and the effect in the SZ group alone was large (d= 1.01 in a 51,260-voxel cluster), with no significant effects in BD or controls, in isolation. No areas under a significant diagnosis by genotype interaction were found.Discussion.We provide the first evidence in a predominantly Caucasian clinical sample, of an association betweenZNF804Ars1344706 A-homozygosity and reduced FA, both irrespective of diagnosis and particularly in SZ (in overlapping brain areas). This suggests that the previously observed involvement of this genomic region in psychosis susceptibility, and in impaired functional connectivity, may be conferred through it inducing abnormalities in white matter microstructure.

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 2461-2480 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Gurung ◽  
D. P. Prata

The powerful genome-wide association studies (GWAS) revealed common mutations that increase susceptibility for schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD), but the vast majority were not known to be functional or associated with these illnesses. To help fill this gap, their impact on human brain structure and function has been examined. We systematically discuss this output to facilitate its timely integration in the psychosis research field; and encourage reflection for future research. Irrespective of imaging modality, studies addressing the effect of SZ/BD GWAS risk genes (ANK3, CACNA1C, MHC, TCF4, NRGN, DGKH, PBRM1, NCANandZNF804A) were included. Most GWAS risk variations were reported to affect neuroimaging phenotypes implicated in SZ/BD: white-matter integrity (ANK3andZNF804A), volume (CACNA1CandZNF804A) and density (ZNF804A); grey-matter (CACNA1C, NRGN, TCF4andZNF804A) and ventricular (TCF4) volume; cortical folding (NCAN) and thickness (ZNF804A); regional activation during executive tasks (ANK3, CACNA1C, DGKH, NRGNandZNF804A) and functional connectivity during executive tasks (CACNA1CandZNF804A), facial affect recognition (CACNA1CandZNF804A) and theory-of-mind (ZNF804A); but inconsistencies and non-replications also exist. Further efforts such as standardizing reporting and exploring complementary designs, are warranted to test the reproducibility of these early findings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 287
Author(s):  
Courtney M. Vecera ◽  
Gabriel R. Fries ◽  
Lokesh R. Shahani ◽  
Jair C. Soares ◽  
Rodrigo Machado-Vieira

Despite being the most widely studied mood stabilizer, researchers have not confirmed a mechanism for lithium’s therapeutic efficacy in Bipolar Disorder (BD). Pharmacogenomic applications may be clinically useful in the future for identifying lithium-responsive patients and facilitating personalized treatment. Six genome-wide association studies (GWAS) reviewed here present evidence of genetic variations related to lithium responsivity and side effect expression. Variants were found on genes regulating the glutamate system, including GAD-like gene 1 (GADL1) and GRIA2 gene, a mutually-regulated target of lithium. In addition, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered on SESTD1 may account for lithium’s exceptional ability to permeate cell membranes and mediate autoimmune and renal effects. Studies also corroborated the importance of epigenetics and stress regulation on lithium response, finding variants on long, non-coding RNA genes and associations between response and genetic loading for psychiatric comorbidities. Overall, the precision medicine model of stratifying patients based on phenotype seems to derive genotypic support of a separate clinical subtype of lithium-responsive BD. Results have yet to be expounded upon and should therefore be interpreted with caution.


Author(s):  
Tim B Bigdeli ◽  
Ayman H Fanous ◽  
Yuli Li ◽  
Nallakkandi Rajeevan ◽  
Frederick Sayward ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BIP) are debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders, collectively affecting 2% of the world’s population. Recognizing the major impact of these psychiatric disorders on the psychosocial function of more than 200 000 US Veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently completed genotyping of more than 8000 veterans with SCZ and BIP in the Cooperative Studies Program (CSP) #572. Methods We performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in CSP #572 and benchmarked the predictive value of polygenic risk scores (PRS) constructed from published findings. We combined our results with available summary statistics from several recent GWAS, realizing the largest and most diverse studies of these disorders to date. Results Our primary GWAS uncovered new associations between CHD7 variants and SCZ, and novel BIP associations with variants in Sortilin Related VPS10 Domain Containing Receptor 3 (SORCS3) and downstream of PCDH11X. Combining our results with published summary statistics for SCZ yielded 39 novel susceptibility loci including CRHR1, and we identified 10 additional findings for BIP (28 326 cases and 90 570 controls). PRS trained on published GWAS were significantly associated with case-control status among European American (P &lt; 10–30) and African American (P &lt; .0005) participants in CSP #572. Conclusions We have demonstrated that published findings for SCZ and BIP are robustly generalizable to a diverse cohort of US veterans. Leveraging available summary statistics from GWAS of global populations, we report 52 new susceptibility loci and improved fine-mapping resolution for dozens of previously reported associations.


2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karla J. Lindquist ◽  
Eric Jorgenson ◽  
Thomas J. Hoffmann ◽  
John S. Witte

Author(s):  
Xiaoming Lu ◽  
Xiaoting Chen ◽  
Carmy Forney ◽  
Omer Donmez ◽  
Daniel Miller ◽  
...  

AbstractGenome-wide association studies of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) nominate 3,073 genetic variants at 91 risk loci. To systematically screen these variants for allelic transcriptional enhancer activity, we constructed a massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) library comprising 12,396 DNA oligonucleotides containing the genomic context around every allele of each SLE variant. Transfection into EBV-infected B cells revealed 482 variants with enhancer activity, with 51 variants showing genotype-dependent (allelic) enhancer activity at 27 risk loci. In-depth analysis of allelic transcription factor (TF) binding at and around these 51 variants identified one class of TFs whose DNA-binding motif tends to be directly altered by the risk variant and a second, larger class of TFs that also bind allelically but do not have their motifs directly altered by the variant. Collectively, our approach provides a blueprint for the discovery of allelic gene regulation at risk loci for any disease and offers insight into the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms underlying SLE.


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