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Wang R, Su Y, O'Donnell K, Caron J, Meaney M, Meng X, Li Y. Differential interactions between gene expressions and stressors across the lifespan in major depressive disorder. J Affect Disord 2024; 362:688-697. [PMID: 39029669 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.07.069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2024] [Revised: 07/05/2024] [Accepted: 07/14/2024] [Indexed: 07/21/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Both genetic predispositions and exposures to stressors have collectively contributed to the development of major depressive disorder (MDD). To deep dive into their roles in MDD, our study aimed to examine which susceptible gene expression interacts with various dimensions of stressors in the MDD risk among a large population cohort. METHODS Data analyzed were from a longitudinal community-based cohort from Southwest Montreal, Canada (N = 1083). Latent profile models were used to identify distinct patterns of stressors for the study cohort. A transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) method was performed to examine the interactive effects of three dimensions of stressors (threat, deprivation, and cumulative lifetime stress) and gene expression on the MDD risk in a total of 48 tissues from GTEx. Additional analyses were also conducted to further explore and specify these associations including colocalization, and fine-mapping analyses, in addition to enrichment analysis investigations based on TWAS. RESULTS We identified 3321 genes linked to MDD at the nominal p-value <0.05 and found that different patterns of stressors can amplify the genetic susceptibility to MDD. We also observed specific genes and pathways that interacted with deprivation and cumulative lifetime stressors, particularly in specific brain tissues including basal ganglia, prefrontal cortex, brain amygdala, brain cerebellum, brain cortex, and the whole blood. Colocalization analysis also identified these genes as having a high probability of sharing MDD causal variants. LIMITATIONS The study cohort was composed exclusively of individuals of Caucasians, which restricts the generalizability of the findings to other ethnic population groups. CONCLUSIONS The findings of the study unveiled significant interactions between potential tissue-specific gene expression × stressors in the MDD risk and shed light on the intricate etiological attributes of gene expression and specific stressors across the lifespan in MDD. These genetic and environmental attributes in MDD corroborate the vulnerability-stress theory and direct future stress research to have a closer examination of genetic predisposition and potential involvements of omics studies to specify the intricate relationships between genes and stressful environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruiyang Wang
- Department of Financial and Risk Engineering, New York University, NY, NYC, USA; Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Douglas Research Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Yingying Su
- School of Public Health and Emergency Management, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
| | - Kieran O'Donnell
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Douglas Research Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada; Yale Child Study Center, Department of Obstetrics Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; Child & Brain Development Program, CIFAR, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Jean Caron
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Douglas Research Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Michael Meaney
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Douglas Research Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Xiangfei Meng
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Douglas Research Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
| | - Yue Li
- School of Computer Science, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
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Van Assche E, Hohoff C, Zang J, Knight MJ, Baune BT. Longitudinal early epigenomic signatures inform molecular paths of therapy response and remission in depressed patients. Front Mol Neurosci 2023; 16:1223216. [PMID: 37664245 PMCID: PMC10472456 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1223216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction The etiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) involves the interaction between genes and environment, including treatment. Early molecular signatures for treatment response and remission are relevant in a context of personalized medicine and stratification and reduce the time-to-decision. Therefore, we focused the analyses on patients that responded or remitted following a cognitive intervention of 8 weeks. Methods We used data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with MDD patients (N = 112) receiving a cognitive intervention. At baseline and 8 weeks, blood for DNA methylation (Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC 850k BeadChip) was collected, as well as MADRS. First, responders (N = 24; MADRS-reduction of at least 50%) were compared with non-responders (N = 60). Then, we performed longitudinal within-individual analyses, for response (N = 21) and for remission (N = 18; MADRS smaller or equal to 9 and higher than 9 at baseline), respectively, as well as patients with no change in MADRS over time. At 8 weeks the sample comprised 84 individuals; 73 patients had DNA methylation for both time-points. The RnBeads package (R) was used for data cleaning, quality control, and differential DNA-methylation (limma). The within-individual paired longitudinal analysis was performed using Welch's t-test. Subsequently gene-ontology (GO) pathway analyses were performed. Results No CpG was genome-wide significant CpG (p < 5 × 10-8). The most significant CpG in the differential methylation analysis comparing response versus non-response was in the IQSEC1 gene (cg01601845; p = 1.53 × 10-6), linked to neurotransmission. The most significant GO-terms were linked to telomeres. The longitudinal response analysis returned 67 GO pathways with a p < 0.05. Two of the three most significant pathways were linked to sodium transport. The analysis for remission returned 46 GO terms with a p-value smaller than 0.05 with pathways linked to phosphatase regulation and synaptic functioning. The analysis with stable patients returned mainly GO-terms linked to basic cellular processes. Discussion Our result suggest that DNA methylation can be suitable to capture early signs of treatment response and remission following a cognitive intervention in depression. Despite not being genome-wide significant, the CpG locations and GO-terms returned by our analysis comparing patients with and without cognitive impairment, are in line with prior knowledge on pathways and genes relevant for depression treatment and cognition. Our analysis provides new hypotheses for the understanding of how treatment for depression can act through DNA methylation and induce response and remission.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Christa Hohoff
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Johannes Zang
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Matthew J. Knight
- Discipline of Psychiatry, Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Bernhard T. Baune
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
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Wijaya MT, Jin R, Liu X, Zhang R, Lee TM. Towards a multidimensional model of inflamed depression. Brain Behav Immun Health 2022; 26:100564. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbih.2022.100564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Revised: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 11/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
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