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Wu J, Chen X, Li R, Lu Q, Ba Y, Fang J, Liu Y, Li R, Liu Y, Wang Y, Chen J, Li Y, Huang Y. Identifying genetic determinants of sarcopenia-related traits: a Mendelian randomization study of druggable genes. Metabolism 2024:155994. [PMID: 39117060 DOI: 10.1016/j.metabol.2024.155994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2023] [Revised: 07/27/2024] [Accepted: 08/03/2024] [Indexed: 08/10/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Sarcopenia, characterized by progressive muscle mass and function loss, particularly affects the elderly, and leads to severe consequences such as falls and mortality. Despite its prevalence, targeted pharmacotherapies for sarcopenia are lacking. Utilizing large-sample genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data is crucial for cost-effective drug discovery. METHODS Herein, we conducted four studies to understand the putative causal effects of genetic components on muscle mass and function. Study 1 employed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) on 15,944 potential druggable genes, investigating their potential causality with muscle quantity and quality in a European population (N up to 461,089). Study 2 validated MR results through sensitivity analyses and colocalization analyses. Study 3 extended validation across other European cohorts, and study 4 conducted quantitative in vivo verification. RESULTS MR analysis revealed significant causality between four genes (BLOC-1 related complex subunit 7, BORCS7; peptidase m20 domain containing 1, PM20D1; nuclear casein kinase and cyclin dependent kinase substrate 1, NUCKS1 and ubiquinol-cytochrome c reductase complex assembly factor 1, UQCC1) and muscle mass and function (p-values range 5.98 × 10-6 to 9.26 × 10-55). To be specific, BORCS7 and UQCC1 negatively regulated muscle quantity and quality, whereas enhancing PM20D1 and NUCKS1 expression showed promise in promoting muscle mass and function. Causal relationships remained robust across sensitivity analyses, with UQCC1 exhibiting notable colocalization effects (PP·H4 93.4 % to 95.8 %). Further validation and in vivo replication verified the potential causality between these genes and muscle mass as well as function. CONCLUSIONS Our druggable genome-wide MR analysis identifies BORCS7, PM20D1, NUCKS1, and UQCC1 as causally associated with muscle mass and function. These findings offer insights into the genetic basis of sarcopenia, paving the way for these genes to become promising drug targets in mitigating this debilitating condition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jihao Wu
- Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China; Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Xiong Chen
- Department of Urology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, China
| | - Ruijun Li
- Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Qiying Lu
- Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China; Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou 510630, China
| | - Yucheng Ba
- Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Jiayun Fang
- Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Yilin Liu
- Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Ruijie Li
- Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Yixuan Liu
- Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Yiling Wang
- Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Jinsi Chen
- Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Yanbing Li
- Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Yinong Huang
- Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China; Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
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Yaacov O, Mathiyalagan P, Berk-Rauch HE, Ganesh SK, Zhu L, Hoffmann TJ, Iribarren C, Risch N, Lee D, Chakravarti A. Identification of the Molecular Components of Enhancer-Mediated Gene Expression Variation in Multiple Tissues Regulating Blood Pressure. Hypertension 2024; 81:1500-1510. [PMID: 38747164 PMCID: PMC11168860 DOI: 10.1161/hypertensionaha.123.22538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Inter-individual variation in blood pressure (BP) arises in part from sequence variants within enhancers modulating the expression of causal genes. We propose that these genes, active in tissues relevant to BP physiology, can be identified from tissue-level epigenomic data and genotypes of BP-phenotyped individuals. METHODS We used chromatin accessibility data from the heart, adrenal, kidney, and artery to identify cis-regulatory elements (CREs) in these tissues and estimate the impact of common human single-nucleotide variants within these CREs on gene expression, using machine learning methods. To identify causal genes, we performed a gene-wise association test. We conducted analyses in 2 separate large-scale cohorts: 77 822 individuals from the Genetic Epidemiology Research on Adult Health and Aging and 315 270 individuals from the UK Biobank. RESULTS We identified 309, 259, 331, and 367 genes (false discovery rate <0.05) for diastolic BP and 191, 184, 204, and 204 genes for systolic BP in the artery, kidney, heart, and adrenal, respectively, in Genetic Epidemiology Research on Adult Health and Aging; 50% to 70% of these genes were replicated in the UK Biobank, significantly higher than the 12% to 15% expected by chance (P<0.0001). These results enabled tissue expression prediction of these 988 to 2875 putative BP genes in individuals of both cohorts to construct an expression polygenic score. This score explained ≈27% of the reported single-nucleotide variant heritability, substantially higher than expected from prior studies. CONCLUSIONS Our work demonstrates the power of tissue-restricted comprehensive CRE analysis, followed by CRE-based expression prediction, for understanding BP regulation in relevant tissues and provides dual-modality supporting evidence, CRE and expression, for the causality genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Or Yaacov
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Prabhu Mathiyalagan
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
- Benthos Prime Central, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Hanna E. Berk-Rauch
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Santhi K. Ganesh
- Department of Internal Medicine & Department of Human Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Luke Zhu
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Thomas J. Hoffmann
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Carlos Iribarren
- Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, Oakland, CA, USA
| | - Neil Risch
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, Oakland, CA, USA
| | - Dongwon Lee
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nephrology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Aravinda Chakravarti
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
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3
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Oliveros W, Delfosse K, Lato DF, Kiriakopulos K, Mokhtaridoost M, Said A, McMurray BJ, Browning JW, Mattioli K, Meng G, Ellis J, Mital S, Melé M, Maass PG. Systematic characterization of regulatory variants of blood pressure genes. CELL GENOMICS 2023; 3:100330. [PMID: 37492106 PMCID: PMC10363820 DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100330] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Revised: 03/29/2023] [Accepted: 04/28/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023]
Abstract
High blood pressure (BP) is the major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Genome-wide association studies have identified genetic variants for BP, but functional insights into causality and related molecular mechanisms lag behind. We functionally characterize 4,608 genetic variants in linkage with 135 BP loci in vascular smooth muscle cells and cardiomyocytes by massively parallel reporter assays. High densities of regulatory variants at BP loci (i.e., ULK4, MAP4, CFDP1, PDE5A) indicate that multiple variants drive genetic association. Regulatory variants are enriched in repeats, alter cardiovascular-related transcription factor motifs, and spatially converge with genes controlling specific cardiovascular pathways. Using heuristic scoring, we define likely causal variants, and CRISPR prime editing finally determines causal variants for KCNK9, SFXN2, and PCGF6, which are candidates for developing high BP. Our systems-level approach provides a catalog of functionally relevant variants and their genomic architecture in two trait-relevant cell lines for a better understanding of BP gene regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Winona Oliveros
- Life Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, 08034 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Kate Delfosse
- Genetics & Genome Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - Daniella F. Lato
- Genetics & Genome Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - Katerina Kiriakopulos
- Genetics & Genome Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
- Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Milad Mokhtaridoost
- Genetics & Genome Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - Abdelrahman Said
- Genetics & Genome Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - Brandon J. McMurray
- Genetics & Genome Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - Jared W.L. Browning
- Genetics & Genome Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
- Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Kaia Mattioli
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Guoliang Meng
- Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - James Ellis
- Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
- Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Seema Mital
- Genetics & Genome Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
- Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, Toronto, ON M5G 1X8, Canada
- Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - Marta Melé
- Life Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, 08034 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Philipp G. Maass
- Genetics & Genome Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
- Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
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Han SK, McNulty MT, Benway CJ, Wen P, Greenberg A, Onuchic-Whitford AC, Jang D, Flannick J, Burtt NP, Wilson PC, Humphreys BD, Wen X, Han Z, Lee D, Sampson MG. Mapping genomic regulation of kidney disease and traits through high-resolution and interpretable eQTLs. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2229. [PMID: 37076491 PMCID: PMC10115815 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37691-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2022] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) studies illuminate genomic variants that regulate specific genes and contribute to fine-mapped loci discovered via genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Efforts to maximize their accuracy are ongoing. Using 240 glomerular (GLOM) and 311 tubulointerstitial (TUBE) micro-dissected samples from human kidney biopsies, we discovered 5371 GLOM and 9787 TUBE genes with at least one variant significantly associated with expression (eGene) by incorporating kidney single-nucleus open chromatin data and transcription start site distance as an "integrative prior" for Bayesian statistical fine-mapping. The use of an integrative prior resulted in higher resolution eQTLs illustrated by (1) smaller numbers of variants in credible sets with greater confidence, (2) increased enrichment of partitioned heritability for GWAS of two kidney traits, (3) an increased number of variants colocalized with the GWAS loci, and (4) enrichment of computationally predicted functional regulatory variants. A subset of variants and genes were validated experimentally in vitro and using a Drosophila nephrocyte model. More broadly, this study demonstrates that tissue-specific eQTL maps informed by single-nucleus open chromatin data have enhanced utility for diverse downstream analyses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seong Kyu Han
- Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Kidney Disease Initiative, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Michelle T McNulty
- Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Kidney Disease Initiative, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Christopher J Benway
- Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Kidney Disease Initiative, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Pei Wen
- Center for Precision Disease Modeling, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Anya Greenberg
- Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Kidney Disease Initiative, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Ana C Onuchic-Whitford
- Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Kidney Disease Initiative, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Renal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Dongkeun Jang
- Programs in Metabolism and Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Jason Flannick
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Programs in Metabolism and Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Division of Genetics and Genomics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Noël P Burtt
- Programs in Metabolism and Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Parker C Wilson
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Benjamin D Humphreys
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Xiaoquan Wen
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Zhe Han
- Center for Precision Disease Modeling, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
| | - Dongwon Lee
- Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Kidney Disease Initiative, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Matthew G Sampson
- Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Kidney Disease Initiative, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Division of Renal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
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5
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Han SK, Muto Y, Wilson PC, Humphreys BD, Sampson MG, Chakravarti A, Lee D. Quality assessment and refinement of chromatin accessibility data using a sequence-based predictive model. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2212810119. [PMID: 36508674 PMCID: PMC9907136 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2212810119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 10/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Chromatin accessibility assays are central to the genome-wide identification of gene regulatory elements associated with transcriptional regulation. However, the data have highly variable quality arising from several biological and technical factors. To surmount this problem, we developed a sequence-based machine learning method to evaluate and refine chromatin accessibility data. Our framework, gapped k-mer SVM quality check (gkmQC), provides the quality metrics for a sample based on the prediction accuracy of the trained models. We tested 886 DNase-seq samples from the ENCODE/Roadmap projects to demonstrate that gkmQC can effectively identify "high-quality" (HQ) samples with low conventional quality scores owing to marginal read depths. Peaks identified in HQ samples are more accurately aligned at functional regulatory elements, show greater enrichment of regulatory elements harboring functional variants, and explain greater heritability of phenotypes from their relevant tissues. Moreover, gkmQC can optimize the peak-calling threshold to identify additional peaks, especially for rare cell types in single-cell chromatin accessibility data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seong Kyu Han
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nephrology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02115
- Kidney Disease Initiative, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA02142
| | - Yoshiharu Muto
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO63130
| | - Parker C. Wilson
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO63130
| | - Benjamin D. Humphreys
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO63130
- Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO63130
| | - Matthew G. Sampson
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nephrology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02115
- Kidney Disease Initiative, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA02142
| | - Aravinda Chakravarti
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY10016
| | - Dongwon Lee
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nephrology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02115
- Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA02115
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A Review of Vascular Traits and Assessment Techniques, and Their Heritability. Artery Res 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s44200-022-00016-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractVarious tools are available to assess atherosclerosis, arterial stiffening, and endothelial function. They offer utility in the assessment of hypertensive phenotypes, in cardiovascular risk prediction, and as surrogate endpoints in clinical trials. We explore the relative influence of participant genetics, with reference to large-scale genomic studies, population-based cohorts, and candidate gene studies. We find heritability estimates highest for carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT 35–65%), followed by pulse wave velocity as a measure of arterial stiffness (26–43%), and flow mediated dilatation as a surrogate for endothelial function (14–39%); data were lacking for peripheral artery tonometry. We furthermore examine genes and polymorphisms relevant to each technique. We conclude that CIMT and pulse wave velocity dominate the existing evidence base, with fewer published genomic linkages for measures of endothelial function. We finally make recommendations regarding planning and reporting of data relating to vascular assessment techniques, particularly when genomic data are also available, to facilitate integration of these tools into cardiovascular disease research.
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