Investigation of genetic determinants of cognitive change in later life.

Cognitive decline is a major health concern and identification of genes that may serve as drug targets to slow decline is important to adequately support an aging population. Whilst genetic studies of cross-sectional cognition have been carried out, cognitive change is less well-understood. Here, using data from the TOMMORROW trial, we investigate genetic associations with cognitive change in a cognitively normal older cohort. We conducted a genome-wide association study of trajectories of repeated cognitive measures (using generalised estimating equation (GEE) modelling) and tested associations with polygenic risk scores (PRS) of potential risk factors. We identified two genetic variants associated with change in attention domain scores, rs534221751 (p = 1 × 10-8 with slope 1) and rs34743896 (p = 5 × 10-10 with slope 2), implicating NCAM2 and CRIPT/ATP6V1E2 genes, respectively. We also found evidence for the association between an education PRS and baseline cognition (at >65 years of age), particularly in the language domain. We demonstrate the feasibility of conducting GWAS of cognitive change using GEE modelling and our results suggest that there may be novel genetic associations for cognitive change that have not previously been associated with cross-sectional cognition. We also show the importance of the education PRS on cognition much later in life. These findings warrant further investigation and demonstrate the potential value of using trial data and trajectory modelling to identify genetic variants associated with cognitive change.

Plasma neurofilament light levels show elevation two years prior to diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the UK Biobank.

OBJECTIVE: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease with profound unmet need. In patients carrying genetic mutations, elevations in neurofilament light (NfL) have been shown to precede symptom onset, however, the natural history of NfL in general ALS patients is less characterized. METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis of the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project (UKB-PPP), a subset of the UK Biobank, a population-based cohort study in the United Kingdom, to examine plasma NfL levels in 237 participants subsequently diagnosed with ALS. We applied logistic and Cox proportional hazards regression to compare cases to 42,752 population-based and 948 age and sex-matched controls. Genetic information was obtained from exome and genotype array data.Results and Conclusions: We observed that NfL was 1.42-fold higher in cases vs population-based controls. At two to three years pre-diagnosis, NfL levels in patients exceeded the 95th percentile of age and sex-matched controls. A time-to-diagnosis analysis showed that a 2-fold increase in NfL levels was associated with a 3.4-fold risk of diagnosis per year, with NfL being most predictive of case status at two years (AUC = 0.96). Participants with genetic variation that might put them at risk for familial disease (N = 46) did not show a different pattern of association than those without (N = 191). DISCUSSION: Our findings show that NfL is elevated and discriminative of future ALS diagnosis up to two years prior to diagnosis in patients with and without genetic risk variants.

Plasma proteomic associations with genetics and health in the UK Biobank.

The Pharma Proteomics Project is a precompetitive biopharmaceutical consortium characterizing the plasma proteomic profiles of 54,219 UK Biobank participants. Here we provide a detailed summary of this initiative, including technical and biological validations, insights into proteomic disease signatures, and prediction modelling for various demographic and health indicators. We present comprehensive protein quantitative trait locus (pQTL) mapping of 2,923 proteins that identifies 14,287 primary genetic associations, of which 81% are previously undescribed, alongside ancestry-specific pQTL mapping in non-European individuals. The study provides an updated characterization of the genetic architecture of the plasma proteome, contextualized with projected pQTL discovery rates as sample sizes and proteomic assay coverages increase over time. We offer extensive insights into trans pQTLs across multiple biological domains, highlight genetic influences on ligand-receptor interactions and pathway perturbations across a diverse collection of cytokines and complement networks, and illustrate long-range epistatic effects of ABO blood group and FUT2 secretor status on proteins with gastrointestinal tissue-enriched expression. We demonstrate the utility of these data for drug discovery by extending the genetic proxied effects of protein targets, such as PCSK9, on additional endpoints, and disentangle specific genes and proteins perturbed at loci associated with COVID-19 susceptibility. This public-private partnership provides the scientific community with an open-access proteomics resource of considerable breadth and depth to help to elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying proteo-genomic discoveries and accelerate the development of biomarkers, predictive models and therapeutics1.

Epigenetic Mechanisms in Obesity: Broadening Our Understanding of the Disease.

Now recognized as more than just the result of overeating or the consumption of poor-quality foods, obesity is understood to be a multifactorial disease, strongly correlated with a variety of environment-gene interactions. In addressing the complex public health issue of obesity, medical practitioners, along with their allied healthcare counterparts, face the challenge of reducing its prevalence by utilizing and sharing with patients the current, yet incomplete, scientific knowledge concerning the disease. While continued research is required to strengthen direct cause-effect relationships, substantial evidence links post-translational modifications such as DNA methylation and histone modifications of several candidate "obesity" genes to the predilection for obesity. Additional evidence supports the influence of maternal diet during the gestational period, individual diet, and other lifestyle and genetic factors in obesity. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the current information concerning epigenetic modifications that appear to support, or result from, the development of obesity. Such mechanisms may serve as therapeutic targets for developing novel prevention and/or treatment strategies for obesity or as epigenetic biomarkers for monitoring recovery.

Genome-wide CRISPR Screening to Identify Drivers of TGF-ß-Induced Liver Fibrosis in Human Hepatic Stellate Cells.

Liver fibrosis progression in chronic liver disease leads to cirrhosis, liver failure, or hepatocellular carcinoma and often ends in liver transplantation. Even with an increased understanding of liver fibrogenesis and many attempts to generate therapeutics specifically targeting fibrosis, there is no approved treatment for liver fibrosis. To further understand and characterize the driving mechanisms of liver fibrosis, we developed a high-throughput genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screening platform to identify hepatic stellate cell (HSC)-derived mediators of transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß-induced liver fibrosis. The functional genomics phenotypic screening platform described here revealed the novel biology of TGF-ß-induced fibrogenesis and potential drug targets for liver fibrosis.

Pan-ancestry exome-wide association analyses of COVID-19 outcomes in 586,157 individuals.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a respiratory illness that can result in hospitalization or death. We used exome sequence data to investigate associations between rare genetic variants and seven COVID-19 outcomes in 586,157 individuals, including 20,952 with COVID-19. After accounting for multiple testing, we did not identify any clear associations with rare variants either exome wide or when specifically focusing on (1) 13 interferon pathway genes in which rare deleterious variants have been reported in individuals with severe COVID-19, (2) 281 genes located in susceptibility loci identified by the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, or (3) 32 additional genes of immunologic relevance and/or therapeutic potential. Our analyses indicate there are no significant associations with rare protein-coding variants with detectable effect sizes at our current sample sizes. Analyses will be updated as additional data become available, and results are publicly available through the Regeneron Genetics Center COVID-19 Results Browser.

Advancing human genetics research and drug discovery through exome sequencing of the UK Biobank.

The UK Biobank Exome Sequencing Consortium (UKB-ESC) is a private-public partnership between the UK Biobank (UKB) and eight biopharmaceutical companies that will complete the sequencing of exomes for all ~500,000 UKB participants. Here, we describe the early results from ~200,000 UKB participants and the features of this project that enabled its success. The biopharmaceutical industry has increasingly used human genetics to improve success in drug discovery. Recognizing the need for large-scale human genetics data, as well as the unique value of the data access and contribution terms of the UKB, the UKB-ESC was formed. As a result, exome data from 200,643 UKB enrollees are now available. These data include ~10 million exonic variants-a rich resource of rare coding variation that is particularly valuable for drug discovery. The UKB-ESC precompetitive collaboration has further strengthened academic and industry ties and has provided teams with an opportunity to interact with and learn from the wider research community.

Identification of rare and common regulatory variants in pluripotent cells using population-scale transcriptomics.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are an established cellular system to study the impact of genetic variants in derived cell types and developmental contexts. However, in their pluripotent state, the disease impact of genetic variants is less well known. Here, we integrate data from 1,367 human iPSC lines to comprehensively map common and rare regulatory variants in human pluripotent cells. Using this population-scale resource, we report hundreds of new colocalization events for human traits specific to iPSCs, and find increased power to identify rare regulatory variants compared with somatic tissues. Finally, we demonstrate how iPSCs enable the identification of causal genes for rare diseases.

Properties of structural variants and short tandem repeats associated with gene expression and complex traits.

Structural variants (SVs) and short tandem repeats (STRs) comprise a broad group of diverse DNA variants which vastly differ in their sizes and distributions across the genome. Here, we identify genomic features of SV classes and STRs that are associated with gene expression and complex traits, including their locations relative to eGenes, likelihood of being associated with multiple eGenes, associated eGene types (e.g., coding, noncoding, level of evolutionary constraint), effect sizes, linkage disequilibrium with tagging single nucleotide variants used in GWAS, and likelihood of being associated with GWAS traits. We identify a set of high-impact SVs/STRs associated with the expression of three or more eGenes via chromatin loops and show that they are highly enriched for being associated with GWAS traits. Our study provides insights into the genomic properties of structural variant classes and short tandem repeats that are associated with gene expression and human traits.

Discovery and quality analysis of a comprehensive set of structural variants and short tandem repeats.

Structural variants (SVs) and short tandem repeats (STRs) are important sources of genetic diversity but are not routinely analyzed in genetic studies because they are difficult to accurately identify and genotype. Because SVs and STRs range in size and type, it is necessary to apply multiple algorithms that incorporate different types of evidence from sequencing data and employ complex filtering strategies to discover a comprehensive set of high-quality and reproducible variants. Here we assemble a set of 719 deep whole genome sequencing (WGS) samples (mean 42×) from 477 distinct individuals which we use to discover and genotype a wide spectrum of SV and STR variants using five algorithms. We use 177 unique pairs of genetic replicates to identify factors that affect variant call reproducibility and develop a systematic filtering strategy to create of one of the most complete and well characterized maps of SVs and STRs to date.

Fibrinogen gamma gene rs2066865 and risk of cancer-related venous thromboembolism.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a frequent complication in patients with cancer. Homozygous carriers of the fibrinogen gamma gene (FGG) rs2066865 have a moderately increased risk of VTE, but the effect of the FGG variant in cancer is unknown. We aimed to investigate the effect of the FGG variant and active cancer on the risk of VTE. Cases with incident VTE (n=640) and a randomly selected age-weighted sub-cohort (n=3,734) were derived from a population-based cohort (the Tromsø study). Cox-regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for VTE according to categories of cancer and FGG In those without cancer, homozygosity at the FGG variant was associated with a 70% (HR 1.7, 95% CI: 1.2-2.3) increased risk of VTE compared to non-carriers. Cancer patients homozygous for the FGG variant had a two-fold (HR 2.0, 95% CI: 1.1-3.6) higher risk of VTE than cancer patients without the variant. Moreover, the six-months cumulative incidence of VTE among cancer patients was 6.4% (95% CI: 3.5-11.6) in homozygous carriers of FGG and 3.1% (95% CI: 2.3-4.7) in those without risk alleles. A synergistic effect was observed between rs2066865 and active cancer on the risk of VTE (synergy index: 1.81, 95% CI: 1.02-3.21, attributable proportion: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.11-0.74). In conclusion, homozygosity at the FGG variant and active cancer yielded a synergistic effect on the risk of VTE.

Association of Human iPSC Gene Signatures and X Chromosome Dosage with Two Distinct Cardiac Differentiation Trajectories.

Despite the importance of understanding how variability across induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines due to non-genetic factors (clone and passage) influences their differentiation outcome, large-scale studies capable of addressing this question have not yet been conducted. Here, we differentiated 191 iPSC lines to generate iPSC-derived cardiovascular progenitor cells (iPSC-CVPCs). We observed cellular heterogeneity across the iPSC-CVPC samples due to varying fractions of two cell types: cardiomyocytes (CMs) and epicardium-derived cells (EPDCs). Comparing the transcriptomes of CM-fated and EPDC-fated iPSCs, we discovered that 91 signature genes and X chromosome dosage differences are associated with these two distinct cardiac developmental trajectories. In an independent set of 39 iPSCs differentiated into CMs, we confirmed that sex and transcriptional differences affect cardiac-fate outcome. Our study provides novel insights into how iPSC transcriptional and X chromosome gene dosage differences influence their response to differentiation stimuli and, hence, cardiac cell fate.

Allele-specific NKX2-5 binding underlies multiple genetic associations with human electrocardiographic traits.

The cardiac transcription factor (TF) gene NKX2-5 has been associated with electrocardiographic (EKG) traits through genome-wide association studies (GWASs), but the extent to which differential binding of NKX2-5 at common regulatory variants contributes to these traits has not yet been studied. We analyzed transcriptomic and epigenomic data from induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes from seven related individuals, and identified ~2,000 single-nucleotide variants associated with allele-specific effects (ASE-SNVs) on NKX2-5 binding. NKX2-5 ASE-SNVs were enriched for altered TF motifs, for heart-specific expression quantitative trait loci and for EKG GWAS signals. Using fine-mapping combined with epigenomic data from induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, we prioritized candidate causal variants for EKG traits, many of which were NKX2-5 ASE-SNVs. Experimentally characterizing two NKX2-5 ASE-SNVs (rs3807989 and rs590041) showed that they modulate the expression of target genes via differential protein binding in cardiac cells, indicating that they are functional variants underlying EKG GWAS signals. Our results show that differential NKX2-5 binding at numerous regulatory variants across the genome contributes to EKG phenotypes.

Dyadic synchrony among young Latina mothers and their toddlers: The role of maternal and child behavior.

Synchronous interactions are an important indicator of parent-child relationship quality with positive implications for child development. Latina adolescent mothers face several demographic challenges that place them at risk for less synchronous interactions. To identify factors that may facilitate more optimal parent-child relationships in this population, our study examined maternal sensitivity and children's behavioral styles as joint predictors of dyadic synchrony among young Latina mothers and their toddlers. Mother-toddler dyads (N = 170) were observed interacting across different tasks, and toddlers' behavior was observed during the administration of a developmental test. Results of multivariate regressions revealed additive effects of maternal sensitivity and child behavioral styles (i.e., dysregulation and positive attentional control). Maternal sensitivity related to higher dyadic synchrony for the entire sample. Positive attentional control was related to higher dyadic synchrony for mother-daughter dyads only. Although no gender differences in dyadic synchrony or the behavior style variables emerged, the relative contribution of maternal and child factors differed by child gender, suggesting that mothers may have responded differently to similar behavior and affect displayed by boys and girls. The findings provide insights regarding factors that contribute to dyadic synchrony in this understudied population and emphasize the need to consider child gender when studying parent-child interactions in young Latina families.

Genomic and transcriptomic association studies identify 16 novel susceptibility loci for venous thromboembolism.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality. To advance our understanding of the biology contributing to VTE, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of VTE and a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) based on imputed gene expression from whole blood and liver. We meta-analyzed GWAS data from 18 studies for 30 234 VTE cases and 172 122 controls and assessed the association between 12 923 718 genetic variants and VTE. We generated variant prediction scores of gene expression from whole blood and liver tissue and assessed them for association with VTE. Mendelian randomization analyses were conducted for traits genetically associated with novel VTE loci. We identified 34 independent genetic signals for VTE risk from GWAS meta-analysis, of which 14 are newly reported associations. This included 11 newly associated genetic loci (C1orf198, PLEK, OSMR-AS1, NUGGC/SCARA5, GRK5, MPHOSPH9, ARID4A, PLCG2, SMG6, EIF5A, and STX10) of which 6 replicated, and 3 new independent signals in 3 known genes. Further, TWAS identified 5 additional genetic loci with imputed gene expression levels differing between cases and controls in whole blood (SH2B3, SPSB1, RP11-747H7.3, RP4-737E23.2) and in liver (ERAP1). At some GWAS loci, we found suggestive evidence that the VTE association signal for novel and previously known regions colocalized with expression quantitative trait locus signals. Mendelian randomization analyses suggested that blood traits may contribute to the underlying risk of VTE. To conclude, we identified 16 novel susceptibility loci for VTE; for some loci, the association signals are likely mediated through gene expression of nearby genes.

Human iPSC-Derived Retinal Pigment Epithelium: A Model System for Prioritizing and Functionally Characterizing Causal Variants at AMD Risk Loci.

We evaluate whether human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium (iPSC-RPE) cells can be used to prioritize and functionally characterize causal variants at age-related macular degeneration (AMD) risk loci. We generated iPSC-RPE from six subjects and show that they have morphological and molecular characteristics similar to those of native RPE. We generated RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, and H3K27ac ChIP-seq data and observed high similarity in gene expression and enriched transcription factor motif profiles between iPSC-RPE and human fetal RPE. We performed fine mapping of AMD risk loci by integrating molecular data from the iPSC-RPE, adult retina, and adult RPE, which identified rs943080 as the probable causal variant at VEGFA. We show that rs943080 is associated with altered chromatin accessibility of a distal ATAC-seq peak, decreased overall gene expression of VEGFA, and allele-specific expression of a non-coding transcript. Our study thus provides a potential mechanism underlying the association of the VEGFA locus with AMD.

Subtle changes in chromatin loop contact propensity are associated with differential gene regulation and expression.

While genetic variation at chromatin loops is relevant for human disease, the relationships between contact propensity (the probability that loci at loops physically interact), genetics, and gene regulation are unclear. We quantitatively interrogate these relationships by comparing Hi-C and molecular phenotype data across cell types and haplotypes. While chromatin loops consistently form across different cell types, they have subtle quantitative differences in contact frequency that are associated with larger changes in gene expression and H3K27ac. For the vast majority of loci with quantitative differences in contact frequency across haplotypes, the changes in magnitude are smaller than those across cell types; however, the proportional relationships between contact propensity, gene expression, and H3K27ac are consistent. These findings suggest that subtle changes in contact propensity have a biologically meaningful role in gene regulation and could be a mechanism by which regulatory genetic variants in loop anchors mediate effects on expression.

Activation of hedgehog signaling associates with early disease progression in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Targeted sequencing of 103 leukemia-associated genes in leukemia cells from 841 treatment-naive patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) identified 89 (11%) patients as having CLL cells with mutations in genes encoding proteins that putatively are involved in hedgehog (Hh) signaling. Consistent with this finding, there was a significant association between the presence of these mutations and the expression of GLI1 (χ2 test, P < .0001), reflecting activation of the Hh pathway. However, we discovered that 38% of cases without identified mutations also were GLI1+ Patients with GLI1+ CLL cells had a shorter median treatment-free survival than patients with CLL cells lacking expression of GLI1 independent of IGHV mutation status. We found that GANT61, a small molecule that can inhibit GLI1, was highly cytotoxic for GLI1+ CLL cells relative to that of CLL cells without GLI1. Collectively, this study shows that a large proportion of patients have CLL cells with activated Hh signaling, which is associated with early disease progression and enhanced sensitivity to inhibition of GLI1.

A large-scale exome array analysis of venous thromboembolism.

Although recent Genome-Wide Association Studies have identified novel associations for common variants, there has been no comprehensive exome-wide search for low-frequency variants that affect the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). We conducted a meta-analysis of 11 studies comprising 8,332 cases and 16,087 controls of European ancestry and 382 cases and 1,476 controls of African American ancestry genotyped with the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip. We used the seqMeta package in R to conduct single variant and gene-based rare variant tests. In the single variant analysis, we limited our analysis to the 64,794 variants with at least 40 minor alleles across studies (minor allele frequency [MAF] ~0.08%). We confirmed associations with previously identified VTE loci, including ABO, F5, F11, and FGA. After adjusting for multiple testing, we observed no novel significant findings in single variant or gene-based analysis. Given our sample size, we had greater than 80% power to detect minimum odds ratios greater than 1.5 and 1.8 for a single variant with MAF of 0.01 and 0.005, respectively. Larger studies and sequence data may be needed to identify novel low-frequency and rare variants associated with VTE risk.

Efficient region-based test strategy uncovers genetic risk factors for functional outcome in bipolar disorder.

Genome-wide association studies of case-control status have advanced the understanding of the genetic basis of psychiatric disorders. Further progress may be gained by increasing sample size but also by new analysis strategies that advance the exploitation of existing data, especially for clinically important quantitative phenotypes. The functionally-informed efficient region-based test strategy (FIERS) introduced herein uses prior knowledge on biological function and dependence of genotypes within a powerful statistical framework with improved sensitivity and specificity for detecting consistent genetic effects across studies. As proof of concept, FIERS was used for the first genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based investigation on bipolar disorder (BD) that focuses on an important aspect of disease course, the functional outcome. FIERS identified a significantly associated locus on chromosome 15 (hg38: chr15:48965004 - 49464789 bp) with consistent effect strength between two independent studies (GAIN/TGen: European Americans, BOMA: Germans; n = 1592 BD patients in total). Protective and risk haplotypes were found on the most strongly associated SNPs. They contain a CTCF binding site (rs586758); CTCF sites are known to regulate sets of genes within a chromatin domain. The rs586758 - rs2086256 - rs1904317 haplotype is located in the promoter flanking region of the COPS2 gene, close to microRNA4716, and the EID1, SHC4, DTWD1 genes as plausible biological candidates. While implication with BD is novel, COPS2, EID1, and SHC4 are known to be relevant for neuronal differentiation and function and DTWD1 for psychopharmacological side effects. The test strategy FIERS that enabled this discovery is equally applicable for tag SNPs and sequence data.