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Capalbo A, de Wert G, Mertes H, Klausner L, Coonen E, Spinella F, Van de Velde H, Viville S, Sermon K, Vermeulen N, Lencz T, Carmi S. Screening embryos for polygenic disease risk: a review of epidemiological, clinical, and ethical considerations. Hum Reprod Update 2024; 30:529-557. [PMID: 38805697 PMCID: PMC11369226 DOI: 10.1093/humupd/dmae012] [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: 01/10/2024] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 05/30/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The genetic composition of embryos generated by in vitro fertilization (IVF) can be examined with preimplantation genetic testing (PGT). Until recently, PGT was limited to detecting single-gene, high-risk pathogenic variants, large structural variants, and aneuploidy. Recent advances have made genome-wide genotyping of IVF embryos feasible and affordable, raising the possibility of screening embryos for their risk of polygenic diseases such as breast cancer, hypertension, diabetes, or schizophrenia. Despite a heated debate around this new technology, called polygenic embryo screening (PES; also PGT-P), it is already available to IVF patients in some countries. Several articles have studied epidemiological, clinical, and ethical perspectives on PES; however, a comprehensive, principled review of this emerging field is missing. OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE This review has four main goals. First, given the interdisciplinary nature of PES studies, we aim to provide a self-contained educational background about PES to reproductive specialists interested in the subject. Second, we provide a comprehensive and critical review of arguments for and against the introduction of PES, crystallizing and prioritizing the key issues. We also cover the attitudes of IVF patients, clinicians, and the public towards PES. Third, we distinguish between possible future groups of PES patients, highlighting the benefits and harms pertaining to each group. Finally, our review, which is supported by ESHRE, is intended to aid healthcare professionals and policymakers in decision-making regarding whether to introduce PES in the clinic, and if so, how, and to whom. SEARCH METHODS We searched for PubMed-indexed articles published between 1/1/2003 and 1/3/2024 using the terms 'polygenic embryo screening', 'polygenic preimplantation', and 'PGT-P'. We limited the review to primary research papers in English whose main focus was PES for medical conditions. We also included papers that did not appear in the search but were deemed relevant. OUTCOMES The main theoretical benefit of PES is a reduction in lifetime polygenic disease risk for children born after screening. The magnitude of the risk reduction has been predicted based on statistical modelling, simulations, and sibling pair analyses. Results based on all methods suggest that under the best-case scenario, large relative risk reductions are possible for one or more diseases. However, as these models abstract several practical limitations, the realized benefits may be smaller, particularly due to a limited number of embryos and unclear future accuracy of the risk estimates. PES may negatively impact patients and their future children, as well as society. The main personal harms are an unindicated IVF treatment, a possible reduction in IVF success rates, and patient confusion, incomplete counselling, and choice overload. The main possible societal harms include discarded embryos, an increasing demand for 'designer babies', overemphasis of the genetic determinants of disease, unequal access, and lower utility in people of non-European ancestries. Benefits and harms will vary across the main potential patient groups, comprising patients already requiring IVF, fertile people with a history of a severe polygenic disease, and fertile healthy people. In the United States, the attitudes of IVF patients and the public towards PES seem positive, while healthcare professionals are cautious, sceptical about clinical utility, and concerned about patient counselling. WIDER IMPLICATIONS The theoretical potential of PES to reduce risk across multiple polygenic diseases requires further research into its benefits and harms. Given the large number of practical limitations and possible harms, particularly unnecessary IVF treatments and discarded viable embryos, PES should be offered only within a research context before further clarity is achieved regarding its balance of benefits and harms. The gap in attitudes between healthcare professionals and the public needs to be narrowed by expanding public and patient education and providing resources for informative and unbiased genetic counselling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Capalbo
- Juno Genetics, Department of Reproductive Genetics, Rome, Italy
- Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), Department of Medical Genetics, “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
| | - Guido de Wert
- Department of Health, Ethics & Society, CAPHRI-School for Public Health and Primary Care and GROW School for Oncology and Reproduction, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Heidi Mertes
- Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Liraz Klausner
- Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Edith Coonen
- Departments of Clinical Genetics and Reproductive Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands
- School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, GROW, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Francesca Spinella
- Eurofins GENOMA Group Srl, Molecular Genetics Laboratories, Department of Scientific Communication, Rome, Italy
| | - Hilde Van de Velde
- Research Group Genetics Reproduction and Development (GRAD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
- Brussels IVF, UZ Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Stephane Viville
- Laboratoire de Génétique Médicale LGM, Institut de Génétique Médicale d’Alsace IGMA, INSERM UMR 1112, Université de Strasbourg, France
- Laboratoire de Diagnostic Génétique, Unité de Génétique de l’infertilité (UF3472), Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
| | - Karen Sermon
- Research Group Genetics Reproduction and Development (GRAD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | | | - Todd Lencz
- Institute of Behavioral Science, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA
- Departments of Psychiatry and Molecular Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY 11549, USA
| | - Shai Carmi
- Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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Dodge TO, Kim BY, Baczenas JJ, Banerjee SM, Gunn TR, Donny AE, Given LA, Rice AR, Haase Cox SK, Weinstein ML, Cross R, Moran BM, Haber K, Haghani NB, Machin Kairuz JA, Gellert HR, Du K, Aguillon SM, Tudor MS, Gutiérrez-Rodríguez C, Rios-Cardenas O, Morris MR, Schartl M, Powell DL, Schumer M. Structural genomic variation and behavioral interactions underpin a balanced sexual mimicry polymorphism. Curr Biol 2024:S0960-9822(24)01168-0. [PMID: 39326413 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.053] [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: 05/14/2024] [Revised: 07/15/2024] [Accepted: 08/29/2024] [Indexed: 09/28/2024]
Abstract
How phenotypic diversity originates and persists within populations are classic puzzles in evolutionary biology. While balanced polymorphisms segregate within many species, it remains rare for both the genetic basis and the selective forces to be known, leading to an incomplete understanding of many classes of traits under balancing selection. Here, we uncover the genetic architecture of a balanced sexual mimicry polymorphism and identify behavioral mechanisms that may be involved in its maintenance in the swordtail fish Xiphophorus birchmanni. We find that ∼40% of X. birchmanni males develop a "false gravid spot," a melanic pigmentation pattern that mimics the "pregnancy spot" associated with sexual maturity in female live-bearing fish. Using genome-wide association mapping, we detect a single intergenic region associated with variation in the false gravid spot phenotype, which is upstream of kitlga, a melanophore patterning gene. By performing long-read sequencing within and across populations, we identify complex structural rearrangements between alternate alleles at this locus. The false gravid spot haplotype drives increased allele-specific expression of kitlga, which provides a mechanistic explanation for the increased melanophore abundance that causes the spot. By studying social interactions in the laboratory and in nature, we find that males with the false gravid spot experience less aggression; however, they also receive increased attention from other males and are disdained by females. These behavioral interactions may contribute to the maintenance of this phenotypic polymorphism in natural populations. We speculate that structural variants affecting gene regulation may be an underappreciated driver of balanced polymorphisms across diverse species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tristram O Dodge
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca" A.C., 16 de Septiembre, 392 Barrio Aguazarca, Calnali, Hidalgo 43240, México.
| | - Bernard Y Kim
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - John J Baczenas
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Shreya M Banerjee
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca" A.C., 16 de Septiembre, 392 Barrio Aguazarca, Calnali, Hidalgo 43240, México; Center for Population Biology and Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, 475 Storer Mall, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Theresa R Gunn
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca" A.C., 16 de Septiembre, 392 Barrio Aguazarca, Calnali, Hidalgo 43240, México
| | - Alex E Donny
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca" A.C., 16 de Septiembre, 392 Barrio Aguazarca, Calnali, Hidalgo 43240, México
| | - Lyle A Given
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Andreas R Rice
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Sophia K Haase Cox
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - M Luke Weinstein
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, 7 Depot St., Athens, OH 45701, USA
| | - Ryan Cross
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, 7 Depot St., Athens, OH 45701, USA
| | - Benjamin M Moran
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca" A.C., 16 de Septiembre, 392 Barrio Aguazarca, Calnali, Hidalgo 43240, México
| | - Kate Haber
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Berkeley High School, 1980 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
| | - Nadia B Haghani
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca" A.C., 16 de Septiembre, 392 Barrio Aguazarca, Calnali, Hidalgo 43240, México
| | | | - Hannah R Gellert
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Kang Du
- Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center, Texas State University, San Marcos, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA
| | - Stepfanie M Aguillon
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca" A.C., 16 de Septiembre, 392 Barrio Aguazarca, Calnali, Hidalgo 43240, México; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, 612 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - M Scarlett Tudor
- Cooperative Extension and Aquaculture Research Institute, University of Maine, 33 Salmon Farm Road, Franklin, ME 04634, USA
| | - Carla Gutiérrez-Rodríguez
- Red de Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Carretera antigua a Coatepec 351, Col. El Haya, Xalapa, Veracruz 91073, México
| | - Oscar Rios-Cardenas
- Red de Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Carretera antigua a Coatepec 351, Col. El Haya, Xalapa, Veracruz 91073, México
| | - Molly R Morris
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, 7 Depot St., Athens, OH 45701, USA
| | - Manfred Schartl
- Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center, Texas State University, San Marcos, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA; Developmental Biochemistry, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Wuerzburg, Germany
| | - Daniel L Powell
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca" A.C., 16 de Septiembre, 392 Barrio Aguazarca, Calnali, Hidalgo 43240, México; Department of Biology, Louisiana State University, 202 Life Science Building, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
| | - Molly Schumer
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Centro de Investigaciones Científicas de las Huastecas "Aguazarca" A.C., 16 de Septiembre, 392 Barrio Aguazarca, Calnali, Hidalgo 43240, México; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 327 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
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Veller C, Przeworski M, Coop G. Causal interpretations of family GWAS in the presence of heterogeneous effects. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2401379121. [PMID: 39269774 PMCID: PMC11420194 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2401379121] [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: 01/21/2024] [Accepted: 07/26/2024] [Indexed: 09/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Family-based genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are often claimed to provide an unbiased estimate of the average causal effects (or average treatment effects; ATEs) of alleles, on the basis of an analogy between the random transmission of alleles from parents to children and a randomized controlled trial. We show that this claim does not hold in general. Because Mendelian segregation only randomizes alleles among children of heterozygotes, the effects of alleles in the children of homozygotes are not observable. This feature will matter if an allele has different average effects in the children of homozygotes and heterozygotes, as can arise in the presence of gene-by-environment interactions, gene-by-gene interactions, or differences in linkage disequilibrium patterns. At a single locus, family-based GWAS can be thought of as providing an unbiased estimate of the average effect in the children of heterozygotes (i.e., a local average treatment effect; LATE). This interpretation does not extend to polygenic scores (PGSs), however, because different sets of SNPs are heterozygous in each family. Therefore, other than under specific conditions, the within-family regression slope of a PGS cannot be assumed to provide an unbiased estimate of the LATE for any subset or weighted average of families. In practice, the potential biases of a family-based GWAS are likely smaller than those that can arise from confounding in a standard, population-based GWAS, and so family studies remain important for the dissection of genetic contributions to phenotypic variation. Nonetheless, their causal interpretation is less straightforward than has been widely appreciated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carl Veller
- Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637
| | - Molly Przeworski
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032
| | - Graham Coop
- Center for Population Biology and Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
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4
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Li WD, Zhang X, Yu K, Zhu Y, Du N, Song Z, Fan Q. A genome-wide association study of occupational creativity and its relations with well-being and career success. Commun Biol 2024; 7:1092. [PMID: 39237691 PMCID: PMC11377709 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06686-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/06/2024] [Indexed: 09/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Creativity is one defining characteristic of human species. There have been mixed findings on how creativity relates to well-being, and little is known about its relationship with career success. We conduct a large-scale genome-wide association study to examine the genetic architecture of occupational creativity, and its genetic correlations with well-being and career success. The SNP-h2 estimates range from 0.08 (for managerial creativity) to 0.22 (for artistic creativity). We record positive genetic correlations between occupational creativity with autism, and positive traits and well-being variables (e.g., physical height, and low levels of neuroticism, BMI, and non-cancer illness). While creativity share positive genetic overlaps with indicators of high career success (i.e., income, occupational status, and job satisfaction), it also has a positive genetic correlation with age at first birth and a negative genetic correlation with number of children, indicating creativity-related genes may reduce reproductive success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Dong Li
- Department of Management, CUHK Business School, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
| | - Xin Zhang
- Department of Human Resource Management, School of Business, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China.
| | - Kaili Yu
- Department of Management, CUHK Business School, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Yimo Zhu
- Department of Management and Organization, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Nianyao Du
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Zhaoli Song
- Department of Management and Organization, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
| | - Qiao Fan
- Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
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Westergaard D, Jørgensen FH, Waaben J, Jung AW, Lademann M, Hansen TF, Cremers J, Ostrowski SR, Pedersen OBV, Reguant R, Jørgensen IF, Fitzgerald T, Birney E, Banasik K, Mortensen L, Brunak S. Uncovering the heritable components of multimorbidities and disease trajectories using a nationwide cohort. Nat Commun 2024; 15:7457. [PMID: 39198472 PMCID: PMC11358290 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51795-8] [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: 08/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2024] [Indexed: 09/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Quantifying the contribution of genetics and environmental effects on disease initiation and progression, as well as the shared genetics of different diseases, is vital for the understanding of the disease etiology of multimorbidities. In this study, we leverage nationwide Danish registries to provide a granular atlas of the genetic origin of disease phenotypes for a cohort of all Danes 1978-2018 with partially known pedigree (n = 6.3 million). We estimate the heritability and genetic correlation between thousands of disease phenotypes using a novel approach that can be scaled to nationwide data. Our findings confirm the importance of genetics for a number of known associations and increase the resolution of heritability by adding numerous associations, some of which point to shared biologically origin of different phenotypes. We also establish the heritability of disease trajectories and the importance of sex-specific genetic contributions. Results can be accessed at https://h2.cpr.ku.dk/ .
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Affiliation(s)
- David Westergaard
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Methods and Analysis, Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, Hvidovre, Denmark
| | | | - Jens Waaben
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Alexander Wolfgang Jung
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Methods and Analysis, Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mette Lademann
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Methods and Analysis, Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Thomas Folkmann Hansen
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jolien Cremers
- Methods and Analysis, Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Sisse Rye Ostrowski
- Department of Clinical Immunology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ole Birger Vesterager Pedersen
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Clinical Immunology, Zealand University Hospital, Køge, Denmark
| | - Roc Reguant
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Australian e-Health Research Centre, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Isabella Friis Jørgensen
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Tom Fitzgerald
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK
| | - Ewan Birney
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK
| | - Karina Banasik
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Laust Mortensen
- Methods and Analysis, Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Søren Brunak
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Vinueza Veloz MF, Bhatta L, Jones PR, Tesli M, Smith GD, Davies NM, Brumpton BM, Næss ØE. Educational attainment and mental health conditions: a within-sibship Mendelian randomization study. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.08.10.24311789. [PMID: 39148847 PMCID: PMC11326327 DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.10.24311789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/17/2024]
Abstract
Importance Observational studies have demonstrated consistent protective effects of higher educational attainment (EA) on the risk of suffering mental health conditions (MHC). Determining whether these beneficial effects are causal is challenging given the potential role of dynastic effects and demographic factors (assortative mating and population structure) in this association. Objective To evaluate to what extent the relationship between EA and various MHC is independent from dynastic effects and demographic factors. Design Within-sibship Mendelian randomization (MR) study. Setting One-sample MR analyses included participants' data from the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT, Norway) and UK Biobank (United Kingdom). For two-sample MR analyses we used summary statistics from publicly available genome-wide-association-studies. Participants 61 880 siblings (27 507 sibships). Exposure Years of education. Main outcomes Scores for symptoms of anxiety, depression and neuroticism using the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS), the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, as well as self-reported consumption of psychotropic medication. Results One standard deviation (SD) unit increase in years of education was associated with a lower symptom score of anxiety (-0.20 SD [95%CI: -0.26, -0.14]), depression (-0.11 SD [-0.43, 0.22]), neuroticism (-0.30 SD [-0.53, -0.06]), and lower odds of psychotropic medication consumption (OR: 0.60 [0.52, 0.69]). Estimates from the within-sibship MR analyses showed some attenuation, which however were suggestive of a causal association (anxiety: -0.17 SD [-0.33, -0.00]; depression: -0.18 SD [-1.26, 0.89]; neuroticism: -0.29 SD [-0.43, -0.15]); psychotropic medication consumption: OR, 0.52 [0.34, 0.82]). Conclusions and Relevance Associations between EA and MHC in adulthood, although to some extend explained by dynastic effects and demographic factors, overall remain robust, indicative of a causal effect. However, larger studies are warranted to improve statistical power and further validate our conclusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- María Fernanda Vinueza Veloz
- Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Post box 1130, 0318 Oslo, Norway
| | - Laxmi Bhatta
- K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Nursing, Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU, Post box 8905, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
- FIU-PH, Division of Mental Health Care, St Olavs Hospital, Post box 3250 Torgarden, 7006 Trondheim, Norway
| | - Paul Remy Jones
- Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Post box 1130, 0318 Oslo, Norway
| | - Martin Tesli
- Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Post box 222 Skøyen, N-0214 Oslo, Norway
- Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, PO Box 4956 Nydalen, 0424 Oslo, Norway
| | - George Davey Smith
- MRC Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, BS8 2BN Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Neil Martin Davies
- K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Nursing, Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU, Post box 8905, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
- MRC Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, BS8 2BN Bristol, United Kingdom
- Division of Psychiatry, University College London, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Rd, W1T 7NF London, United Kingdom
- Department of Statistical Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT London, United Kingdom
| | - Ben M. Brumpton
- K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Nursing, Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU, Post box 8905, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
- HUNT Research Center, Department of Public and Nursing, Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU, Post box 8905, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
- Clinic of Medicine, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Postboks 3250 Torgarden, 7006 Trondheim, Norway
| | - Øyvind Erik Næss
- Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Post box 1130, 0318 Oslo, Norway
- Department Chronic diseases, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Post box 222 Skøyen, N-0213 Oslo, Norway
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7
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Don J, Schork AJ, Glusman G, Rappaport N, Cummings SR, Duggan D, Raju A, Hellberg KLG, Gunn S, Monti S, Perls T, Lapidus J, Goetz LH, Sebastiani P, Schork NJ. The relationship between 11 different polygenic longevity scores, parental lifespan, and disease diagnosis in the UK Biobank. GeroScience 2024; 46:3911-3927. [PMID: 38451433 PMCID: PMC11226417 DOI: 10.1007/s11357-024-01107-1] [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: 10/30/2023] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) strongly suggest that most traits and diseases have a polygenic component. This observation has motivated the development of disease-specific "polygenic scores (PGS)" that are weighted sums of the effects of disease-associated variants identified from GWAS that correlate with an individual's likelihood of expressing a specific phenotype. Although most GWAS have been pursued on disease traits, leading to the creation of refined "Polygenic Risk Scores" (PRS) that quantify risk to diseases, many GWAS have also been pursued on extreme human longevity, general fitness, health span, and other health-positive traits. These GWAS have discovered many genetic variants seemingly protective from disease and are often different from disease-associated variants (i.e., they are not just alternative alleles at disease-associated loci) and suggest that many health-positive traits also have a polygenic basis. This observation has led to an interest in "polygenic longevity scores (PLS)" that quantify the "risk" or genetic predisposition of an individual towards health. We derived 11 different PLS from 4 different available GWAS on lifespan and then investigated the properties of these PLS using data from the UK Biobank (UKB). Tests of association between the PLS and population structure, parental lifespan, and several cancerous and non-cancerous diseases, including death from COVID-19, were performed. Based on the results of our analyses, we argue that PLS are made up of variants not only robustly associated with parental lifespan, but that also contribute to the genetic architecture of disease susceptibility, morbidity, and mortality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janith Don
- Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Andrew J Schork
- The Institute of Biological Psychiatry, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
- GLOBE Institute, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | | | - Steve R Cummings
- San Francisco Coordinating Center, California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - David Duggan
- Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Anish Raju
- Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Kajsa-Lotta Georgii Hellberg
- The Institute of Biological Psychiatry, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
- GLOBE Institute, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Sophia Gunn
- Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Stefano Monti
- Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Thomas Perls
- Department of Medicine, Section of Geriatrics, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jodi Lapidus
- Department of Biostatistics, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Laura H Goetz
- Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Phoenix, AZ, USA
- Veterans Affairs Loma Linda Health Care, Loma Linda, CA, USA
| | - Paola Sebastiani
- Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
- Tufts University School of Medicine and Data Intensive Study Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Nicholas J Schork
- Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Phoenix, AZ, USA.
- The City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, USA.
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8
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Burt CH. Polygenic Indices (a.k.a. Polygenic Scores) in Social Science: A Guide for Interpretation and Evaluation. SOCIOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY 2024; 54:300-350. [PMID: 39091537 PMCID: PMC11293310 DOI: 10.1177/00811750241236482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/04/2024]
Abstract
Polygenic indices (PGI)-the new recommended label for polygenic scores (PGS) in social science-are genetic summary scales often used to represent an individual's liability for a disease, trait, or behavior based on the additive effects of measured genetic variants. Enthusiasm for linking genetic data with social outcomes and the inclusion of premade PGIs in social science datasets have facilitated increased uptake of PGIs in social science research-a trend that will likely continue. Yet, most social scientists lack the expertise to interpret and evaluate PGIs in social science research. Here, we provide a primer on PGIs for social scientists focusing on key concepts, unique statistical genetic considerations, and best practices in calculation, estimation, reporting, and interpretation. We summarize our recommended best practices as a checklist to aid social scientists in evaluating and interpreting studies with PGIs. We conclude by discussing the similarities between PGIs and standard social science scales and unique interpretative considerations.
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9
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Torvik FA, Sunde HF, Cheesman R, Eftedal NH, Keller MC, Ystrom E, Eilertsen EM. Non-random Mating Patterns in Education, Mental, and Somatic Health: A Population Study on Within- and Cross-Trait Associations. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2023.11.27.23299055. [PMID: 38077008 PMCID: PMC10705620 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.27.23299055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2023]
Abstract
Partners resemble each other on many traits, such as health and education. The traits are usually studied one by one in data from established couples and with potential participation bias. We studied all Norwegian parents who had their first child between 2016 and 2020 (N=187,926) and the siblings of these parents. We analysed grade point averages at age 16 (GPA), educational attainment (EA), and medical records with diagnostic data on 10 mental and 10 somatic health conditions measured 10 to 5 years before childbirth. We found stronger partner similarity in mental (median r=0.14) than in somatic health conditions (median r=0.04), with ubiquitous cross-trait correlations for mental health conditions (median r=0.13). GPA correlated 0.43 and EA 0.47 between partners. High GPA or EA was associated with better mental (median r=-0.16) and somatic (median r=-0.08) health in partners. Elevated correlations for mental health (median r=0.25) in established couples indicated convergence. Analyses of siblings and in-laws revealed deviations from direct assortment, suggesting instead indirect assortment based on related traits. Adjusting for GPA and EA reduced partner correlations in health with 30-40%. This has implications for the distribution of risk factors among children, for genetic studies, and for studies of intergenerational transmission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fartein Ask Torvik
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Hans Fredrik Sunde
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Rosa Cheesman
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | | | - Matthew C. Keller
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| | - Eivind Ystrom
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Espen Moen Eilertsen
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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10
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Massey DJ, Szpiech ZA, Goldberg A. Differentiating mechanism from outcome for ancestry-assortative mating in admixed human populations. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.06.06.597727. [PMID: 38895317 PMCID: PMC11185628 DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.06.597727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/21/2024]
Abstract
Population genetic theory, and the empirical methods built upon it, often assume that individuals pair randomly for reproduction. However, natural populations frequently violate this assumption, which may potentially confound genome-wide association studies, selection scans, and demographic inference. Within several recently admixed human populations, empirical genetic studies have reported a correlation in global ancestry proportion between spouses, referred to as ancestry-assortative mating. Here, we use forward genomic simulations to link correlations in ancestry between mates to the underlying mechanistic mate-choice process. We consider the impacts of two types of mate-choice model, using either ancestry-based preferences or social groups as the basis for mate pairing. We find that multiple mate-choice models can produce the same correlations in ancestry proportion between spouses; however, we also highlight alternative analytic approaches and circumstances in which these models may be distinguished. With this work, we seek to highlight potential pitfalls when interpreting correlations in empirical data as evidence for a particular model of human mating practices, as well as to offer suggestions toward development of new best practices for analysis of human ancestry-assortative mating.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Zachary A Szpiech
- Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, USA 16801
- Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, USA 16801
| | - Amy Goldberg
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, USA 27708
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11
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Di H, Wen Y, Wang J, Wang J, Wang Y, Li Y, Sun F. The impact of obesity and sexual behavior on prostate cancer risk is mediated by testosterone levels: a mendelian randomization study and mediation analysis. Prostate Int 2024; 12:96-103. [PMID: 39036754 PMCID: PMC11255935 DOI: 10.1016/j.prnil.2024.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2024] [Revised: 03/08/2024] [Accepted: 03/21/2024] [Indexed: 07/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Background The relationship between obesity, sexual behavior, and prostate cancer (PCa) has been widely debated, contributing to a lack of understanding of its potential mechanisms and hindering the development of effective prevention measures. Purpose The aim of this study was to examine the causal effect of body mass index (BMI), age at first sexual intercourse (AFS), and bioavailable testosterone levels on PCa while also quantifying the potential roles of mediators. Method We conducted a Mendelian randomization (MR) study using summary statistics from genome-wide associations of BMI (152,893 European males), AFS (182,791 European males), bioavailable testosterone (184,205 European males), and PCa (79,148 cases, 61,106 controls, European ancestry). Inverse-variance weighted method, weighted median method, MR-Egger regression, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), and outlier test were used for MR analyses. Reverse MR and mediation analysis were performed. Data analyses were conducted from December 2022 to July 2023. Results The results showed that genetic liability to BMI was protective of PCa (OR, 0.82; 95% CI: 0.74-0.91; P = 3.29 × 10-4). Genetic liability to later AFS (OR, 1.28; 95% CI: 1.08-1.53; P = 5.64 × 10-3) and higher bioavailable testosterone levels (OR = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.01-1.24, P = 0.04) were associated with an increased risk of PCa. All of these potential causal effects could only be forwarded and were not affected by prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening. After controlling for bioavailable testosterone levels, the causal impact of BMI and AFS on PCa was no longer significant. The mediation analysis suggested that the causal influence of AFS/BMI on PCa relied on bioavailable testosterone levels. Conclusion In conclusion, the difference between the univariable and multivariable MR results suggested that the causal influence of BMI and AFS on PCa relied on bioavailable testosterone levels. Further work is needed to identify other risk factors and to elucidate the specific mechanisms that underlie this causal pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huajie Di
- Department of Pediatrics, The Second Clinical Medical School Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
| | - Yi Wen
- Department of Pediatrics, The Second Clinical Medical School Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
| | - Junyan Wang
- Department of Pediatrics, The Second Clinical Medical School Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
| | - Jiayu Wang
- Department of Pediatrics, The Second Clinical Medical School Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
| | - Yeqing Wang
- Electronic Information and Engineering College, Hebei University, Baoding, China
| | - Yuan Li
- Department of Pediatric Urology, Xuzhou Children's Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
| | - Fanghao Sun
- Department of Urology, Xuzhou First People's Hospital, Xuzhou, China
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12
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Toikumo S, Jennings MV, Pham BK, Lee H, Mallard TT, Bianchi SB, Meredith JJ, Vilar-Ribó L, Xu H, Hatoum AS, Johnson EC, Pazdernik VK, Jinwala Z, Pakala SR, Leger BS, Niarchou M, Ehinmowo M, Jenkins GD, Batzler A, Pendegraft R, Palmer AA, Zhou H, Biernacka JM, Coombes BJ, Gelernter J, Xu K, Hancock DB, Cox NJ, Smoller JW, Davis LK, Justice AC, Kranzler HR, Kember RL, Sanchez-Roige S. Multi-ancestry meta-analysis of tobacco use disorder identifies 461 potential risk genes and reveals associations with multiple health outcomes. Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8:1177-1193. [PMID: 38632388 PMCID: PMC11199106 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01851-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024]
Abstract
Tobacco use disorder (TUD) is the most prevalent substance use disorder in the world. Genetic factors influence smoking behaviours and although strides have been made using genome-wide association studies to identify risk variants, most variants identified have been for nicotine consumption, rather than TUD. Here we leveraged four US biobanks to perform a multi-ancestral meta-analysis of TUD (derived via electronic health records) in 653,790 individuals (495,005 European, 114,420 African American and 44,365 Latin American) and data from UK Biobank (ncombined = 898,680). We identified 88 independent risk loci; integration with functional genomic tools uncovered 461 potential risk genes, primarily expressed in the brain. TUD was genetically correlated with smoking and psychiatric traits from traditionally ascertained cohorts, externalizing behaviours in children and hundreds of medical outcomes, including HIV infection, heart disease and pain. This work furthers our biological understanding of TUD and establishes electronic health records as a source of phenotypic information for studying the genetics of TUD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvanus Toikumo
- Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Crescenz VAMC, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Mariela V Jennings
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Benjamin K Pham
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Hyunjoon Lee
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Travis T Mallard
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Center for Precision Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sevim B Bianchi
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - John J Meredith
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Laura Vilar-Ribó
- Psychiatric Genetics Unit, Group of Psychiatry, Mental Health and Addiction, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Heng Xu
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Alexander S Hatoum
- Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Emma C Johnson
- Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | | | - Zeal Jinwala
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Shreya R Pakala
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Brittany S Leger
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Program in Biomedical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Maria Niarchou
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | | | - Greg D Jenkins
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Anthony Batzler
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Richard Pendegraft
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Abraham A Palmer
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Institute for Genomic Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Hang Zhou
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA
| | - Joanna M Biernacka
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Brandon J Coombes
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
| | - Joel Gelernter
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA
| | - Ke Xu
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA
| | | | - Nancy J Cox
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Jordan W Smoller
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Center for Precision Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Lea K Davis
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Amy C Justice
- Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA
- Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA
- Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Henry R Kranzler
- Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Crescenz VAMC, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Rachel L Kember
- Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Crescenz VAMC, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Sandra Sanchez-Roige
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Institute for Genomic Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
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13
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Furrer RA, Barlevy D, Pereira S, Carmi S, Lencz T, Lázaro-Muñoz G. Public Attitudes, Interests, and Concerns Regarding Polygenic Embryo Screening. JAMA Netw Open 2024; 7:e2410832. [PMID: 38743425 PMCID: PMC11094562 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.10832] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Importance Polygenic embryo screening (PES) is a novel technology that estimates the likelihood of developing future conditions (eg, diabetes or depression) and traits (eg, height or cognitive ability) in human embryos, with the goal of selecting which embryos to use. Given its commercial availability and concerns raised by researchers, clinicians, bioethicists, and professional organizations, it is essential to inform key stakeholders and relevant policymakers about the public's perspectives on this technology. Objective To survey US adults to examine general attitudes, interests, and concerns regarding PES use. Design, Setting, and Participants For this survey study, data were collected from 1 stratified sample and 1 nonprobability sample (samples 1 and 2, respectively) between March and July 2023. The surveys measured approval, interest, and concerns regarding various applications of PES. In the second sample, presentation of a list of potential concerns was randomized (presented at survey onset vs survey end). The survey was designed using Qualtrics and distributed to participants through Prolific, an online sampling firm. Sample 1 was nationally representative with respect to gender, age, and race and ethnicity; sample 2 was recruited without specific demographic criteria. Analyses were conducted between March 2023 and February 2024. Main Outcomes and Measures Participants reported their approval, interest, and concerns regarding various applications of PES and outcomes screened (eg, traits and conditions). Statistical analysis was conducted using independent samples t tests and repeated-measures analyses of variance. Results Of the 1435 respondents in sample 1, demographic data were available for 1427 (mean [SD] age, 45.8 [16.0] years; 724 women [50.7%]). Among these 1427 sample 1 respondents, 1027 (72.0%) expressed approval for PES and 1169 (81.9%) expressed some interest in using PES if already undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Approval among these respondents for using PES for embryo selection was notably high for physical health conditions (1109 [77.7%]) and psychiatric health conditions (1028 [72.0%]). In contrast, there was minority approval for embryo selection based on PES for behavioral traits (514 [36.0%]) and physical traits (432 [30.3%]). Nevertheless, concerns about PES leading to false expectations and promoting eugenic practices were pronounced, with 787 of 1422 (55.3%) and 780 of 1423 (54.8%) respondents finding them very to extremely concerning, respectively. Sample 2 included 192 respondents (mean [SD] age 37.7 [12.2] years; 110 men [57.3%]). These respondents were presented concerns at survey onset (n = 95) vs survey end (n = 97), which was associated with less approval (28-percentage point decrease) and more uncertainty (24 percentage-point increase) but with only slightly higher disapproval (4 percentage-point increase). Conclusions and Relevance These findings suggest that it is critical for health care professionals and medical societies to consider and understand the perspectives of diverse stakeholders (eg, patients undergoing IVF, clinicians, and the general public), given the absence of regulation and the recent commercial availability of PES.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rémy A. Furrer
- Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Dorit Barlevy
- Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
| | - Stacey Pereira
- Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
| | - Shai Carmi
- Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Todd Lencz
- Institute of Behavioral Science, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, New York
- Departments of Psychiatry and Molecular Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, New York
- Division of Research, Department of Psychiatry, The Zucker Hillside Hospital Division of Northwell Health, Glen Oaks, New York
| | - Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz
- Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
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14
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Cabrera-Mendoza B, Wendt FR, Pathak GA, Yengo L, Polimanti R. The impact of assortative mating, participation bias and socioeconomic status on the polygenic risk of behavioural and psychiatric traits. Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8:976-987. [PMID: 38366106 PMCID: PMC11161911 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01828-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
To investigate assortative mating (AM), participation bias and socioeconomic status (SES) with respect to the genetics of behavioural and psychiatric traits, we estimated AM signatures using gametic phase disequilibrium and within-spouses and within-siblings polygenic risk score correlation analyses, also performing a SES conditional analysis. The cross-method meta-analysis identified AM genetic signatures for multiple alcohol-related phenotypes, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome. Here, after SES conditioning, we observed changes in the AM genetic signatures for maximum habitual alcohol intake, frequency of drinking alcohol and Tourette syndrome. We also observed significant gametic phase disequilibrium differences between UK Biobank mental health questionnaire responders versus non-responders for major depressive disorder and alcohol use disorder. These results highlight the impact of AM, participation bias and SES on the polygenic risk of behavioural and psychiatric traits, particularly in alcohol-related traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brenda Cabrera-Mendoza
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- VA CT Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA
| | - Frank R Wendt
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- VA CT Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Division of Biostatistics, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Gita A Pathak
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- VA CT Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA
| | - Loic Yengo
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
| | - Renato Polimanti
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
- VA CT Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA.
- Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
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15
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Breunig S, Lawrence JM, Foote IF, Gebhardt HJ, Willcutt EG, Grotzinger AD. Examining Differences in the Genetic and Functional Architecture of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Diagnosed in Childhood and Adulthood. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY GLOBAL OPEN SCIENCE 2024; 4:100307. [PMID: 38633226 PMCID: PMC11021367 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2024.100307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2023] [Revised: 03/01/2024] [Accepted: 03/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with diagnostic criteria requiring symptoms to begin in childhood. We investigated whether individuals diagnosed as children differ from those diagnosed in adulthood with respect to shared and unique architecture at the genome-wide and gene expression level of analysis. Methods We used genomic structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate differences in genetic correlations (rg) of childhood-diagnosed (ncases = 14,878) and adulthood-diagnosed (ncases = 6961) ADHD with 98 behavioral, psychiatric, cognitive, and health outcomes. We went on to apply transcriptome-wide SEM to identify functional annotations and patterns of gene expression associated with genetic risk sharing or divergence across the ADHD subgroups. Results Compared with the childhood subgroup, adulthood-diagnosed ADHD exhibited a significantly larger negative rg with educational attainment, the noncognitive skills of educational attainment, and age at first sexual intercourse. We observed a larger positive rg for adulthood-diagnosed ADHD with major depression, suicidal ideation, and a latent internalizing factor. At the gene expression level, transcriptome-wide SEM analyses revealed 22 genes that were significantly associated with shared genetic risk across the subtypes that reflected a mixture of coding and noncoding genes and included 15 novel genes relative to the ADHD subgroups. Conclusions This study demonstrated that ADHD diagnosed later in life shows much stronger genetic overlap with internalizing disorders and related traits. This may indicate the potential clinical relevance of distinguishing these subgroups or increased misdiagnosis for those diagnosed later in life. Top transcriptome-wide SEM results implicated genes related to neuronal function and clinical characteristics (e.g., sleep).
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Breunig
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
| | - Jeremy M. Lawrence
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
| | - Isabelle F. Foote
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
| | - Hannah J. Gebhardt
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
| | - Erik G. Willcutt
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
| | - Andrew D. Grotzinger
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
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16
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Boardman JD, Harris KM, Finch BK. Pathways between a polygenic index for education and years of completed schooling: the presentation of self and assessment of others. BIODEMOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL BIOLOGY 2024; 69:102-109. [PMID: 38828740 PMCID: PMC11208116 DOI: 10.1080/19485565.2024.2355891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2024]
Abstract
Polygenic scores (PGS) are broadly misconstrued as reflecting direct causal genetic effects on their respective phenotypes. While this assumption might be accurate for some anthropometric traits like height, more complex traits such as educational attainment show very large indirect effects that stem from many sources. One unexplored source of confounding is the possibility of evocative gene-environment correlation (rGE). Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine the relationship between interviewer assessments of respondent appearance as a function of education PGS. We show a bivariate association between educational PGS and 1) perceived grooming, 2) physical attractiveness, and 3) personality. We then regress years of education on the educational PGS and show that very little of the association (~1-2%) is mediated by attractiveness or personality but 7.5% of the baseline association is confounded with how others may perceive grooming. These results highlight the importance of social-behavioral mechanisms that may link specific genotypes to successful transitions through high school and college and continue to bridge research from the social and biological sciences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason D Boardman
- Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
- Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Kathleen Mullan Harris
- Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Brian Karl Finch
- Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Sociology & Spatial Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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17
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Veller C, Coop GM. Interpreting population- and family-based genome-wide association studies in the presence of confounding. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002511. [PMID: 38603516 PMCID: PMC11008796 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
A central aim of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) is to estimate direct genetic effects: the causal effects on an individual's phenotype of the alleles that they carry. However, estimates of direct effects can be subject to genetic and environmental confounding and can also absorb the "indirect" genetic effects of relatives' genotypes. Recently, an important development in controlling for these confounds has been the use of within-family GWASs, which, because of the randomness of mendelian segregation within pedigrees, are often interpreted as producing unbiased estimates of direct effects. Here, we present a general theoretical analysis of the influence of confounding in standard population-based and within-family GWASs. We show that, contrary to common interpretation, family-based estimates of direct effects can be biased by genetic confounding. In humans, such biases will often be small per-locus, but can be compounded when effect-size estimates are used in polygenic scores (PGSs). We illustrate the influence of genetic confounding on population- and family-based estimates of direct effects using models of assortative mating, population stratification, and stabilizing selection on GWAS traits. We further show how family-based estimates of indirect genetic effects, based on comparisons of parentally transmitted and untransmitted alleles, can suffer substantial genetic confounding. We conclude that, while family-based studies have placed GWAS estimation on a more rigorous footing, they carry subtle issues of interpretation that arise from confounding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carl Veller
- Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Graham M. Coop
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America
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18
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Lawrence JM, Breunig S, Foote IF, Tallis CB, Grotzinger AD. Genomic SEM applied to explore etiological divergences in bipolar subtypes. Psychol Med 2024; 54:1152-1159. [PMID: 37885278 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291723002957] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Bipolar disorder (BD) is an overarching diagnostic class defined by the presence of at least one prior manic episode (BD I) or both a prior hypomanic episode and a prior depressive episode (BD II). Traditionally, BD II has been conceptualized as a less severe presentation of BD I, however, extant literature to investigate this claim has been mixed. METHODS We apply genomic structural equation modeling (Genomic SEM) to investigate divergent genetic pathways across BD's two major subtypes using the most recent GWAS summary statistics from the PGC. We begin by identifying divergences in genetic correlations across 98 external traits using a Bonferroni-corrected threshold. We also use a theoretically informed follow-up model to examine the extent to which the genetic variance in each subtype is explained by schizophrenia and major depression. Lastly, transcriptome-wide SEM (T-SEM) was used to identify neuronal gene expression patterns associated with BD subtypes. RESULTS BD II was characterized by significantly larger genetic overlap across non-psychiatric medical and internalizing traits (e.g. heart disease, neuroticism, insomnia), while stronger associations for BD I were absent. Consistent with these findings, follow-up modeling revealed a substantial major depression component for BD II. T-SEM results revealed 35 unique genes associated with shared risk across BD subtypes. CONCLUSIONS Divergent patterns of genetic relationships across external traits provide support for the distinction of the bipolar subtypes. However, our results also challenge the illness severity conceptualization of BD given stronger genetic overlap across BD II and a range of clinically relevant traits and disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy M Lawrence
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Sophie Breunig
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Isabelle F Foote
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Connor B Tallis
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Andrew D Grotzinger
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
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19
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Young AS. Genome-wide association studies have problems due to confounding: Are family-based designs the answer? PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002568. [PMID: 38607978 PMCID: PMC11014432 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) can be affected by confounding. Family-based GWAS uses random, within-family genetic variation to avoid this. A study in PLOS Biology details how different sources of confounding affect GWAS and whether family-based designs offer a solution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Strudwick Young
- UCLA Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- Human Genetics Department, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
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20
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Sunde HF, Eftedal NH, Cheesman R, Corfield EC, Kleppesto TH, Seierstad AC, Ystrom E, Eilertsen EM, Torvik FA. Genetic similarity between relatives provides evidence on the presence and history of assortative mating. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2641. [PMID: 38531929 PMCID: PMC10966108 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46939-9] [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: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Assortative mating - the non-random mating of individuals with similar traits - is known to increase trait-specific genetic variance and genetic similarity between relatives. However, empirical evidence is limited for many traits, and the implications hinge on whether assortative mating has started recently or many generations ago. Here we show theoretically and empirically that genetic similarity between relatives can provide evidence on the presence and history of assortative mating. First, we employed path analysis to understand how assortative mating affects genetic similarity between family members across generations, finding that similarity between distant relatives is more affected than close relatives. Next, we correlated polygenic indices of 47,135 co-parents from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and found genetic evidence of assortative mating in nine out of sixteen examined traits. The same traits showed elevated similarity between relatives, especially distant relatives. Six of the nine traits, including educational attainment, showed greater genetic variance among offspring, which is inconsistent with stable assortative mating over many generations. These results suggest an ongoing increase in familial similarity for these traits. The implications of this research extend to genetic methodology and the understanding of social and economic disparities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hans Fredrik Sunde
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
| | | | - Rosa Cheesman
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Elizabeth C Corfield
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Thomas H Kleppesto
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | | | - Eivind Ystrom
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Espen Moen Eilertsen
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Fartein Ask Torvik
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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21
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Schraiber JG, Edge MD, Pennell M. Unifying approaches from statistical genetics and phylogenetics for mapping phenotypes in structured populations. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.02.10.579721. [PMID: 38496530 PMCID: PMC10942266 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.10.579721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
In both statistical genetics and phylogenetics, a major goal is to identify correlations between genetic loci or other aspects of the phenotype or environment and a focal trait. In these two fields, there are sophisticated but disparate statistical traditions aimed at these tasks. The disconnect between their respective approaches is becoming untenable as questions in medicine, conservation biology, and evolutionary biology increasingly rely on integrating data from within and among species, and once-clear conceptual divisions are becoming increasingly blurred. To help bridge this divide, we derive a general model describing the covariance between the genetic contributions to the quantitative phenotypes of different individuals. Taking this approach shows that standard models in both statistical genetics (e.g., Genome-Wide Association Studies; GWAS) and phylogenetic comparative biology (e.g., phylogenetic regression) can be interpreted as special cases of this more general quantitative-genetic model. The fact that these models share the same core architecture means that we can build a unified understanding of the strengths and limitations of different methods for controlling for genetic structure when testing for associations. We develop intuition for why and when spurious correlations may occur using analytical theory and conduct population-genetic and phylogenetic simulations of quantitative traits. The structural similarity of problems in statistical genetics and phylogenetics enables us to take methodological advances from one field and apply them in the other. We demonstrate this by showing how a standard GWAS technique-including both the genetic relatedness matrix (GRM) as well as its leading eigenvectors, corresponding to the principal components of the genotype matrix, in a regression model-can mitigate spurious correlations in phylogenetic analyses. As a case study of this, we re-examine an analysis testing for co-evolution of expression levels between genes across a fungal phylogeny, and show that including covariance matrix eigenvectors as covariates decreases the false positive rate while simultaneously increasing the true positive rate. More generally, this work provides a foundation for more integrative approaches for understanding the genetic architecture of phenotypes and how evolutionary processes shape it.
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22
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Freudenberg-Hua Y, Li W, Lee UJ, Ma Y, Koppel J, Goate A. Association between pre-dementia psychiatric diagnoses and all-cause dementia is independent from polygenic dementia risks in the UK Biobank. EBioMedicine 2024; 101:104978. [PMID: 38320878 PMCID: PMC10944156 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.104978] [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: 08/07/2023] [Revised: 12/27/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 02/08/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Psychiatric disorders have been associated with higher risk for future dementia. Understanding how pre-dementia psychiatric disorders (PDPD) relate to established dementia genetic risks has implications for dementia prevention. METHODS In this retrospective cohort study, we investigated the relationships between polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer's disease (AD PRS), PDPD, alcohol use disorder (AUD), and subsequent dementia in the UK Biobank (UKB) and tested whether the relationships are consistent with different causal models. FINDINGS Among 502,408 participants, 9352 had dementia. As expected, AD PRS was associated with greater risk for dementia (odds ratio (OR) 1.62, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.59-1.65). A total of 94,237 participants had PDPD, of whom 2.6% (n = 2519) developed subsequent dementia, compared to 1.7% (n = 6833) of 407,871 participants without PDPD. Accordingly, PDPD were associated with 73% greater risk of incident dementia (OR 1.73, 1.65-1.83). Among dementia subtypes, the risk increase was 1.5-fold for AD (n = 3365) (OR 1.46, 1.34-1.59) and 2-fold for vascular dementia (VaD, n = 1823) (OR 2.08, 1.87-2.32). Our data indicated that PDPD were neither a dementia prodrome nor a mediator for AD PRS. Shared factors for both PDPD and dementia likely substantially account for the observed association, while a causal role of PDPD in dementia could not be excluded. AUD could be one of the shared causes for PDPD and dementia. INTERPRETATION Psychiatric diagnoses were associated with subsequent dementia in UKB participants, and the association is orthogonal to established dementia genetic risks. Investigating shared causes for psychiatric disorders and dementia would shed light on this dementia pathway. FUNDING US NIH (K08AG054727).
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Affiliation(s)
- Yun Freudenberg-Hua
- Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research, Institute of Molecular Medicine, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA; Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health, Glen Oaks, NY, USA.
| | - Wentian Li
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA; Center for Genomics and Human Genetics, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA
| | - Un Jung Lee
- Biostatistics Unit, Office of Academic Affairs, Northwell Health, New Hyde Park, NY, USA
| | - Yilong Ma
- Center for Neurosciences, Institute of Molecular Medicine, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA
| | - Jeremy Koppel
- Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research, Institute of Molecular Medicine, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA; Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health, Glen Oaks, NY, USA
| | - Alison Goate
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer's Disease, Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
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23
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Lappalainen T, Li YI, Ramachandran S, Gusev A. Genetic and molecular architecture of complex traits. Cell 2024; 187:1059-1075. [PMID: 38428388 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.01.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2023] [Revised: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Human genetics has emerged as one of the most dynamic areas of biology, with a broadening societal impact. In this review, we discuss recent achievements, ongoing efforts, and future challenges in the field. Advances in technology, statistical methods, and the growing scale of research efforts have all provided many insights into the processes that have given rise to the current patterns of genetic variation. Vast maps of genetic associations with human traits and diseases have allowed characterization of their genetic architecture. Finally, studies of molecular and cellular effects of genetic variants have provided insights into biological processes underlying disease. Many outstanding questions remain, but the field is well poised for groundbreaking discoveries as it increases the use of genetic data to understand both the history of our species and its applications to improve human health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tuuli Lappalainen
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA; Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Gene Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Yang I Li
- Section of Genetic Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Sohini Ramachandran
- Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Center for Computational Molecular Biology, and the Data Science Institute, Brown University, Providence, RI 029129, USA
| | - Alexander Gusev
- Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA
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24
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Ayorech Z, Torvik FA, Cheesman R, Eilertsen EM, Valstad M, Bjørndal LD, Røysamb E, Havdahl A, Ystrøm E. The structure of psychiatric comorbidity without selection and assortative mating. Transl Psychiatry 2024; 14:121. [PMID: 38409260 PMCID: PMC10897477 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-02768-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The widespread comorbidity observed across psychiatric disorders may be the result of processes such as assortative mating, gene-environment correlation, or selection into population studies. Between-family analyses of comorbidity are subject to these sources of bias, whereas within-family analyses are not. Because of Mendelian inheritance, alleles are randomly assigned within families, conditional on parental alleles. We exploit this variation to compare the structure of comorbidity across broad psychiatric polygenic scores when calculated either between-family (child polygenic scores) or within-family (child polygenic scores regressed on parental polygenic scores) in over 25,000 genotyped parent-offspring trios from the Norwegian Mother Father and Child Cohort study (MoBa). We fitted a series of factor models to the between- and within-family data, which consisted of a single genetic p-factor and a varying number of uncorrelated subfactors. The best-fitting model was identical for between- and within-family analyses and included three subfactors capturing variants associated with neurodevelopment, psychosis, and constraint, in addition to the genetic p-factor. Partner genetic correlations, indicating assortative mating, were not present for the genetic p-factor, but were substantial for the psychosis (b = 0.081;95% CI [0.038,0.124]) and constraint (b = 0.257;95% CI [0.075,0.439]) subfactors. When average factor levels for MoBa mothers and fathers were compared to a population mean of zero we found evidence of sex-specific participation bias, which has implications for the generalizability of findings from cohort studies. Our results demonstrate the power of the within-family design for better understanding the mechanisms driving psychiatric comorbidity and their consequences on population health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziada Ayorech
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway.
| | - Fartein Ask Torvik
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Rosa Cheesman
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway
| | - Espen M Eilertsen
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Mathias Valstad
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ludvig Daae Bjørndal
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway
| | - Espen Røysamb
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Alexandra Havdahl
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway
- Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health (PsychGen), Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Spångbergveien 25, Oslo, 0853, Norway
| | - Eivind Ystrøm
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
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25
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Johnson EC, Austin-Zimmerman I, Thorpe HH, Levey DF, Baranger DA, Colbert SM, Demontis D, Khokhar JY, Davis LK, Edenberg HJ, Forti MD, Sanchez-Roige S, Gelernter J, Agrawal A. Cross-ancestry genetic investigation of schizophrenia, cannabis use disorder, and tobacco smoking. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.01.17.24301430. [PMID: 38293235 PMCID: PMC10827265 DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.17.24301430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2024]
Abstract
Individuals with schizophrenia frequently experience co-occurring substance use, including tobacco smoking and heavy cannabis use, and substance use disorders. There is interest in understanding the extent to which these relationships are causal, and to what extent shared genetic factors play a role. We explored the relationships between schizophrenia (Scz), cannabis use disorder (CanUD), and ever-regular tobacco smoking (Smk) using the largest available genome-wide studies of these phenotypes in individuals of African and European ancestries. All three phenotypes were positively genetically correlated (rgs = 0.17 - 0.62). Causal inference analyses suggested the presence of horizontal pleiotropy, but evidence for bidirectional causal relationships was also found between all three phenotypes even after correcting for horizontal pleiotropy. We identified 439 pleiotropic loci in the European ancestry data, 150 of which were novel (i.e., not genome-wide significant in the original studies). Of these pleiotropic loci, 202 had lead variants which showed convergent effects (i.e., same direction of effect) on Scz, CanUD, and Smk. Genetic variants convergent across all three phenotypes showed strong genetic correlations with risk-taking, executive function, and several mental health conditions. Our results suggest that both horizontal pleiotropy and causal mechanisms may play a role in the relationship between CanUD, Smk, and Scz, but longitudinal, prospective studies are needed to confirm a causal relationship.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emma C Johnson
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO USA
| | - Isabelle Austin-Zimmerman
- Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Hayley Ha Thorpe
- Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | - Daniel F Levey
- Division of Human Genetics, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare Center, West Haven, CT, USA
| | - David Aa Baranger
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO USA
| | - Sarah Mc Colbert
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY USA
| | - Ditte Demontis
- The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research (iPSYCH), Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Biomedicine and Centre for Integrative Sequencing (iSEQ), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Jibran Y Khokhar
- Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | - Lea K Davis
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Howard J Edenberg
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Marta Di Forti
- Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Sandra Sanchez-Roige
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, UC San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Joel Gelernter
- Division of Human Genetics, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare Center, West Haven, CT, USA
| | - Arpana Agrawal
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO USA
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26
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Song S, Zhang J. Genetic variants underlying human bisexual behavior are reproductively advantageous. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadj6958. [PMID: 38170769 PMCID: PMC10796114 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj6958] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
Because human same-sex sexual behavior (SSB) is heritable and leads to fewer offspring, how SSB-associated alleles have persisted and whether they will remain in human populations are of interest. Using the UK Biobank, we address these questions separately for bisexual behavior (BSB) and exclusive SSB (eSSB) after confirming their genetic distinction. We discover that male BSB is genetically positively correlated with the number of offspring. This unexpected phenomenon is attributable to the horizontal pleiotropy of male risk-taking behavior-associated alleles because male risk-taking behavior is genetically positively correlated with both BSB and the number of offspring and because genetically controlling male risk-taking behavior abolishes the genetic correlation between male BSB and the number of offspring. By contrast, eSSB is genetically negatively correlated with the number of offspring. Our results suggest that male BSB-associated alleles are likely reproductively advantageous, which may explain their past persistence and predict their future maintenance, and that eSSB-associated alleles are likely being selected against at present.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siliang Song
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
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27
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McClellan JM, Zoghbi AW, Buxbaum JD, Cappi C, Crowley JJ, Flint J, Grice DE, Gulsuner S, Iyegbe C, Jain S, Kuo PH, Lattig MC, Passos-Bueno MR, Purushottam M, Stein DJ, Sunshine AB, Susser ES, Walsh CA, Wootton O, King MC. An evolutionary perspective on complex neuropsychiatric disease. Neuron 2024; 112:7-24. [PMID: 38016473 PMCID: PMC10842497 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.10.037] [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: 08/02/2022] [Revised: 08/09/2023] [Accepted: 10/26/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023]
Abstract
The forces of evolution-mutation, selection, migration, and genetic drift-shape the genetic architecture of human traits, including the genetic architecture of complex neuropsychiatric illnesses. Studying these illnesses in populations that are diverse in genetic ancestry, historical demography, and cultural history can reveal how evolutionary forces have guided adaptation over time and place. A fundamental truth of shared human biology is that an allele responsible for a disease in anyone, anywhere, reveals a gene critical to the normal biology underlying that condition in everyone, everywhere. Understanding the genetic causes of neuropsychiatric disease in the widest possible range of human populations thus yields the greatest possible range of insight into genes critical to human brain development. In this perspective, we explore some of the relationships between genes, adaptation, and history that can be illuminated by an evolutionary perspective on studies of complex neuropsychiatric disease in diverse populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jon M McClellan
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Anthony W Zoghbi
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Joseph D Buxbaum
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Carolina Cappi
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - James J Crowley
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Jonathan Flint
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Dorothy E Grice
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Suleyman Gulsuner
- Department of Medicine and Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Conrad Iyegbe
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Sanjeev Jain
- Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru 560029, India
| | - Po-Hsiu Kuo
- Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100, Taiwan
| | | | | | - Meera Purushottam
- Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru 560029, India
| | - Dan J Stein
- SAMRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Anna B Sunshine
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Department of Medicine and Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Ezra S Susser
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, and New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA
| | - Christopher A Walsh
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Division of Genetics and Genomics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Olivia Wootton
- SAMRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Mary-Claire King
- Department of Medicine and Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
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Long E, Zhang J. Evidence for the role of selection for reproductively advantageous alleles in human aging. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadh4990. [PMID: 38064565 PMCID: PMC10708185 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh4990] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023]
Abstract
The antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis posits that natural selection for pleiotropic mutations that confer earlier or more reproduction but impair the post-reproductive life causes aging. This hypothesis of the evolutionary origin of aging is supported by case studies but lacks unambiguous genomic evidence. Here, we genomically test this hypothesis using the genotypes, reproductive phenotypes, and death registry of 276,406 U.K. Biobank participants. We observe a strong, negative genetic correlation between reproductive traits and life span. Individuals with higher polygenetic scores for reproduction (PGSR) have lower survivorships to age 76 (SV76), and PGSR increased over birth cohorts from 1940 to 1969. Similar trends are seen from individual genetic variants examined. The antagonistically pleiotropic variants are often associated with cis-regulatory effects across multiple tissues or on multiple target genes. These and other findings support the antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis of aging in humans and point to potential molecular mechanisms of the reproduction-life-span antagonistic pleiotropy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erping Long
- Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100005, China
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Jianzhi Zhang
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
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Andreu-Bernabeu Á, González-Peñas J, Arango C, Díaz-Caneja CM. Socioeconomic status and severe mental disorders: a bidirectional multivariable Mendelian randomisation study. BMJ MENTAL HEALTH 2023; 26:e300821. [PMID: 38007229 PMCID: PMC10680010 DOI: 10.1136/bmjment-2023-300821] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/27/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Despite the evidence supporting the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and severe mental disorders (SMD), the directionality of the associations between income or education and mental disorders is still poorly understood. OBJECTIVE To investigate the potential bidirectional causal relationships between genetic liability to the two main components of SES (income and educational attainment (EA)) on three SMD: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (BD) and depression. METHODS We performed a bidirectional, two-sample univariable Mendelian randomisation (UVMR) and multivariable Mendelian randomisation (MVMR) study using SES phenotypes (income, n=397 751 and EA, n=766 345) and SMD (schizophrenia, n=127 906; BD, n=51 710 and depression, n=500 119) genome-wide association studies summary-statistics to dissect the potential direct associations of income and EA with SMD. FINDINGS UVMR showed that genetic liability to higher income was associated with decreased risk of schizophrenia and depression, with a smaller reverse effect of schizophrenia and depression on income. Effects were comparable after adjusting for EA in the MVMR. UMVR showed bidirectional negative associations between genetic liability to EA and depression and positive associations between genetic liability to EA and BD, with no significant effects on schizophrenia. After accounting for income, MVMR showed a bidirectional positive direction between genetic liability to EA and BD and schizophrenia but not with depression. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest a heterogeneous link pattern between SES and SMD. We found a negative bidirectional association between genetic liability to income and the risk of schizophrenia and depression. On the contrary, we found a positive bidirectional relationship of genetic liability to EA with schizophrenia and BD, which only becomes apparent after adjusting for income in the case of schizophrenia. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS These findings shed light on the directional mechanisms between social determinants and mental disorders and suggest that income and EA should be studied separately in relation to mental illness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Álvaro Andreu-Bernabeu
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM), CIBERSAM, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain
| | - Javier González-Peñas
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM), CIBERSAM, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain
| | - Celso Arango
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM), CIBERSAM, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Covadonga M Díaz-Caneja
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM), CIBERSAM, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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Veller C, Przeworski M, Coop G. Causal interpretations of family GWAS in the presence of heterogeneous effects. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.13.566950. [PMID: 38014124 PMCID: PMC10680648 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.13.566950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Family-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have emerged as a gold standard for assessing causal effects of alleles and polygenic scores. Notably, family studies are often claimed to provide an unbiased estimate of the average causal effect (or average treatment effect; ATE) of an allele, on the basis of an analogy between the random transmission of alleles from parents to children and a randomized controlled trial. Here, we show that this interpretation does not hold in general. Because Mendelian segregation only randomizes alleles among children of heterozygotes, the effects of alleles in the children of homozygotes are not observable. Consequently, if an allele has different average effects in the children of homozygotes and heterozygotes, as can arise in the presence of gene-by-environment interactions, gene-by-gene interactions, or differences in LD patterns, family studies provide a biased estimate of the average effect in the sample. At a single locus, family-based association studies can be thought of as providing an unbiased estimate of the average effect in the children of heterozygotes (i.e., a local average treatment effect; LATE). This interpretation does not extend to polygenic scores, however, because different sets of SNPs are heterozygous in each family. Therefore, other than under specific conditions, the within-family regression slope of a PGS cannot be assumed to provide an unbiased estimate for any subset or weighted average of families. Instead, family-based studies can be reinterpreted as enabling an unbiased estimate of the extent to which Mendelian segregation at loci in the PGS contributes to the population-level variance in the trait. Because this estimate does not include the between-family variance, however, this interpretation applies to only (roughly) half of the sample PGS variance. In practice, the potential biases of a family-based GWAS are likely smaller than those arising from confounding in a standard, population-based GWAS, and so family studies remain important for the dissection of genetic contributions to phenotypic variation. Nonetheless, the causal interpretation of family-based GWAS estimates is less straightforward than has been widely appreciated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carl Veller
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago
| | - Molly Przeworski
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University
| | - Graham Coop
- Center for Population Biology and Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis
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Tang D, Freudenberg J, Dahl A. Factorizing polygenic epistasis improves prediction and uncovers biological pathways in complex traits. Am J Hum Genet 2023; 110:1875-1887. [PMID: 37922884 PMCID: PMC10645564 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.10.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Revised: 10/04/2023] [Accepted: 10/05/2023] [Indexed: 11/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Epistasis is central in many domains of biology, but it has not yet been proven useful for understanding the etiology of complex traits. This is partly because complex-trait epistasis involves polygenic interactions that are poorly captured in current models. To address this gap, we developed a model called Epistasis Factor Analysis (EFA). EFA assumes that polygenic epistasis can be factorized into interactions between a few epistasis factors (EFs), which represent latent polygenic components of the observed complex trait. The statistical goals of EFA are to improve polygenic prediction and to increase power to detect epistasis, while the biological goal is to unravel genetic effects into more-homogeneous units. We mathematically characterize EFA and use simulations to show that EFA outperforms current epistasis models when its assumptions approximately hold. Applied to predicting yeast growth rates, EFA outperforms the additive model for several traits with large epistasis heritability and uniformly outperforms the standard epistasis model. We replicate these prediction improvements in a second dataset. We then apply EFA to four previously characterized traits in the UK Biobank and find statistically significant epistasis in all four, including two that are robust to scale transformation. Moreover, we find that the inferred EFs partly recover pre-defined biological pathways for two of the traits. Our results demonstrate that more realistic models can identify biologically and statistically meaningful epistasis in complex traits, indicating that epistasis has potential for precision medicine and characterizing the biology underlying GWAS results.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Tang
- Section of Genetic Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Jerome Freudenberg
- Section of Genetic Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Andy Dahl
- Section of Genetic Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
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32
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Zhang Z, Jung J, Kim A, Suboc N, Gazal S, Mancuso N. A scalable approach to characterize pleiotropy across thousands of human diseases and complex traits using GWAS summary statistics. Am J Hum Genet 2023; 110:1863-1874. [PMID: 37879338 PMCID: PMC10645558 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.09.015] [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: 03/27/2023] [Revised: 09/26/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) across thousands of traits have revealed the pervasive pleiotropy of trait-associated genetic variants. While methods have been proposed to characterize pleiotropic components across groups of phenotypes, scaling these approaches to ultra-large-scale biobanks has been challenging. Here, we propose FactorGo, a scalable variational factor analysis model to identify and characterize pleiotropic components using biobank GWAS summary data. In extensive simulations, we observe that FactorGo outperforms the state-of-the-art (model-free) approach tSVD in capturing latent pleiotropic factors across phenotypes while maintaining a similar computational cost. We apply FactorGo to estimate 100 latent pleiotropic factors from GWAS summary data of 2,483 phenotypes measured in European-ancestry Pan-UK BioBank individuals (N = 420,531). Next, we find that factors from FactorGo are more enriched with relevant tissue-specific annotations than those identified by tSVD (p = 2.58E-10) and validate our approach by recapitulating brain-specific enrichment for BMI and the height-related connection between reproductive system and muscular-skeletal growth. Finally, our analyses suggest shared etiologies between rheumatoid arthritis and periodontal condition in addition to alkaline phosphatase as a candidate prognostic biomarker for prostate cancer. Overall, FactorGo improves our biological understanding of shared etiologies across thousands of GWASs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zixuan Zhang
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
| | - Junghyun Jung
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Artem Kim
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Noah Suboc
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Steven Gazal
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Nicholas Mancuso
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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Kendler KS, Aggen SH. A population-based twin study of the symptomatic diagnostic criteria for major depression that occur within versus outside of major depressive episodes. Psychol Med 2023; 53:7458-7465. [PMID: 37154209 PMCID: PMC10719671 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291723001241] [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: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 04/04/2023] [Accepted: 04/12/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Are genetic risk factors for current depressive symptoms good proxies for genetic risk factors for syndromal major depression (MD)? METHODS In over 9000 twins from the population-based Virginia Adult Twin Study of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders, the occurrence of all nine DSM symptomatic criteria for MD in the last year was assessed at personal interview and then grouped by their temporal co-occurrence. The DSM criteria which occurred outside (OUT) v. inside of (IN) MD episodes were then separated. We calculated tetrachoric correlations for OUT and IN depressive criteria in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) pairs and fitted univariate and bivariate ACE twin models using OpenMx. RESULTS The mean twin correlations (±95% CIs) for IN depressive criteria were substantially higher than for OUT depressive criteria in both MZ [+0.35 (0.32-0.38) v. 0.20 (0.17-0.24)] and DZ pairs [0.20 (0.17-0.24) v. 0.10 (0.04-0.16]. The mean IN-OUT cross-correlation in MZ and DZ pairs was modest [+0.15 (0.07-0.24) and +0.07 (0.03-0.12)]. The mean heritability estimates for the nine In v. Out depressive criteria was 0.31 (0.22-0.41) and 0.15 (0.08-0.21), in MZ and DZ pairs, respectively. The mean genetic correlation between the nine IN and OUT depressive criteria was +0.07 (-0.07 to 0.21). CONCLUSIONS Depressive criteria occurring outside depressive episodes are less heritable than those occurring within. These two ways criteria can manifest are not closely genetically related. Current depressive symptoms - most of which are occurring outside of depressive episodes - are not, for genetic studies, good proxies for MD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth S. Kendler
- Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Richmond, VA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA
| | - Steven H. Aggen
- Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Richmond, VA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA
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Dapas M, Lee YL, Wentworth-Sheilds W, Im HK, Ober C, Schoettler N. Revealing polygenic pleiotropy using genetic risk scores for asthma. HGG ADVANCES 2023; 4:100233. [PMID: 37663543 PMCID: PMC10474095 DOI: 10.1016/j.xhgg.2023.100233] [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: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 08/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023] Open
Abstract
In this study we examined how genetic risk for asthma associates with different features of the disease and with other medical conditions and traits. Using summary statistics from two multi-ancestry genome-wide association studies of asthma, we modeled polygenic risk scores (PRSs) and validated their predictive performance in the UK Biobank. We then performed phenome-wide association studies of the asthma PRSs with 371 heritable traits in the UK Biobank. We identified 228 total significant associations across a variety of organ systems, including associations that varied by PRS model, sex, age of asthma onset, ancestry, and human leukocyte antigen region alleles. Our results highlight pervasive pleiotropy between asthma and numerous other traits and conditions and elucidate pathways that contribute to asthma and its comorbidities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew Dapas
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Yu Lin Lee
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Biological Sciences Collegiate Division, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | | | - Hae Kyung Im
- Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Carole Ober
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Nathan Schoettler
- Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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35
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Agrawal A, Brislin SJ, Bucholz KK, Dick D, Hart RP, Johnson EC, Meyers J, Salvatore J, Slesinger P, Almasy L, Foroud T, Goate A, Hesselbrock V, Kramer J, Kuperman S, Merikangas AK, Nurnberger JI, Tischfield J, Edenberg HJ, Porjesz B. The Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism: Overview. GENES, BRAIN, AND BEHAVIOR 2023; 22:e12864. [PMID: 37736010 PMCID: PMC10550790 DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12864] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Revised: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/23/2023]
Abstract
Alcohol use disorders (AUD) are commonly occurring, heritable and polygenic disorders with etiological origins in the brain and the environment. To outline the causes and consequences of alcohol-related milestones, including AUD, and their related psychiatric comorbidities, the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) was launched in 1989 with a gene-brain-behavior framework. COGA is a family based, diverse (~25% self-identified African American, ~52% female) sample, including data on 17,878 individuals, ages 7-97 years, in 2246 families of which a proportion are densely affected for AUD. All participants responded to questionnaires (e.g., personality) and the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA) which gathers information on psychiatric diagnoses, conditions and related behaviors (e.g., parental monitoring). In addition, 9871 individuals have brain function data from electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings while 12,009 individuals have been genotyped on genome-wide association study (GWAS) arrays. A series of functional genomics studies examine the specific cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying AUD. This overview provides the framework for the development of COGA as a scientific resource in the past three decades, with individual reviews providing in-depth descriptions of data on and discoveries from behavioral and clinical, brain function, genetic and functional genomics data. The value of COGA also resides in its data sharing policies, its efforts to communicate scientific findings to the broader community via a project website and its potential to nurture early career investigators and to generate independent research that has broadened the impact of gene-brain-behavior research into AUD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arpana Agrawal
- Department of PsychiatryWashington University School of Medicine in St. LouisSt. LouisMissouriUSA
| | - Sarah J. Brislin
- Department of PsychiatryRutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical SchoolPiscatawayNew JerseyUSA
| | - Kathleen K. Bucholz
- Department of PsychiatryWashington University School of Medicine in St. LouisSt. LouisMissouriUSA
| | - Danielle Dick
- Department of PsychiatryRutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical SchoolPiscatawayNew JerseyUSA
| | - Ronald P. Hart
- Department of Cell Biology and NeuroscienceRutgers UniversityPiscatawayNew JerseyUSA
| | - Emma C. Johnson
- Department of PsychiatryWashington University School of Medicine in St. LouisSt. LouisMissouriUSA
| | - Jacquelyn Meyers
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral SciencesSUNY Downstate Health Sciences UniversityBrooklynNew YorkUSA
| | - Jessica Salvatore
- Department of PsychiatryRutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical SchoolPiscatawayNew JerseyUSA
| | - Paul Slesinger
- Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain InstituteIcahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiNew YorkNew YorkUSA
| | - Laura Almasy
- Department of Biomedical and Health InformaticsChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of MedicineUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of MedicineUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Tatiana Foroud
- Department of Medical and Molecular GeneticsIndiana University School of MedicineIndianapolisIndianaUSA
| | - Alison Goate
- Department of Genetics and Genomic SciencesIcahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiNew YorkNew YorkUSA
- Department of NeuroscienceIcahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiNew YorkNew YorkUSA
- Department of NeurologyIcahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiNew YorkNew YorkUSA
| | - Victor Hesselbrock
- Department of PsychiatryUniversity of Connecticut School of MedicineFarmingtonConnecticutUSA
| | - John Kramer
- Department of PsychiatryUniversity of Iowa Carver College of MedicineIowa CityIowaUSA
| | - Samuel Kuperman
- Department of PsychiatryUniversity of Iowa Carver College of MedicineIowa CityIowaUSA
| | - Alison K. Merikangas
- Department of Biomedical and Health InformaticsChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of MedicineUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of MedicineUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | | | - Jay Tischfield
- Department of GeneticsRutgers UniversityPiscatawayNew JerseyUSA
| | - Howard J. Edenberg
- Department of Medical and Molecular GeneticsIndiana University School of MedicineIndianapolisIndianaUSA
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyIndiana University School of MedicineIndianapolisIndianaUSA
| | - Bernice Porjesz
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral SciencesSUNY Downstate Health Sciences UniversityBrooklynNew YorkUSA
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Sánchez-Valle J, Valencia A. Molecular bases of comorbidities: present and future perspectives. Trends Genet 2023; 39:773-786. [PMID: 37482451 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2023.06.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2023] [Revised: 06/12/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/25/2023]
Abstract
Co-occurrence of diseases decreases patient quality of life, complicates treatment choices, and increases mortality. Analyses of electronic health records present a complex scenario of comorbidity relationships that vary by age, sex, and cohort under study. The study of similarities between diseases using 'omics data, such as genes altered in diseases, gene expression, proteome, and microbiome, are fundamental to uncovering the origin of, and potential treatment for, comorbidities. Recent studies have produced a first generation of genetic interpretations for as much as 46% of the comorbidities described in large cohorts. Integrating different sources of molecular information and using artificial intelligence (AI) methods are promising approaches for the study of comorbidities. They may help to improve the treatment of comorbidities, including the potential repositioning of drugs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jon Sánchez-Valle
- Life Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, 08034, Spain.
| | - Alfonso Valencia
- Life Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, 08034, Spain; ICREA, Barcelona, 08010, Spain.
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Karageorgiou V, Casanova F, O'Loughlin J, Green H, McKinley TJ, Bowden J, Tyrrell J. Body mass index and inflammation in depression and treatment-resistant depression: a Mendelian randomisation study. BMC Med 2023; 21:355. [PMID: 37710313 PMCID: PMC10502981 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-023-03001-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2022] [Accepted: 07/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder (MDD) has a significant impact on global burden of disease. Complications in clinical management can occur when response to pharmacological modalities is considered inadequate and symptoms persist (treatment-resistant depression (TRD)). We aim to investigate inflammation, proxied by C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, and body mass index (BMI) as putative causal risk factors for depression and subsequent treatment resistance, leveraging genetic information to avoid confounding via Mendelian randomisation (MR). METHODS We used the European UK Biobank subcohort ([Formula: see text]), the mental health questionnaire (MHQ) and clinical records. For treatment resistance, a previously curated phenotype based on general practitioner (GP) records and prescription data was employed. We applied univariable and multivariable MR models to genetically predict the exposures and assess their causal contribution to a range of depression outcomes. We used a range of univariable, multivariable and mediation MR models techniques to address our research question with maximum rigour. In addition, we developed a novel statistical procedure to apply pleiotropy-robust multivariable MR to one sample data and employed a Bayesian bootstrap procedure to accurately quantify estimate uncertainty in mediation analysis which outperforms standard approaches in sparse binary outcomes. Given the flexibility of the one-sample design, we evaluated age and sex as moderators of the effects. RESULTS In univariable MR models, genetically predicted BMI was positively associated with depression outcomes, including MDD ([Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] CI): 0.133(0.072, 0.205)) and TRD (0.347(0.002, 0.682)), with a larger magnitude in females and with age acting as a moderator of the effect of BMI on severity of depression (0.22(0.050, 0.389)). Multivariable MR analyses suggested an independent causal effect of BMI on TRD not through CRP (0.395(0.004, 0.732)). Our mediation analyses suggested that the effect of CRP on severity of depression was partly mediated by BMI. Individuals with TRD ([Formula: see text]) observationally had higher CRP and BMI compared with individuals with MDD alone and healthy controls. DISCUSSION Our work supports the assertion that BMI exerts a causal effect on a range of clinical and questionnaire-based depression phenotypes, with the effect being stronger in females and in younger individuals. We show that this effect is independent of inflammation proxied by CRP levels as the effects of CRP do not persist when jointly estimated with BMI. This is consistent with previous evidence suggesting that overweight contributed to depression even in the absence of any metabolic consequences. It appears that BMI exerts an effect on TRD that persists when we account for BMI influencing MDD.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Harry Green
- College of Medicine & Health, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | | | - Jack Bowden
- College of Medicine & Health, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
- Genetics Department, Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Jessica Tyrrell
- College of Medicine & Health, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
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Bilghese M, Manansala R, Jaishankar D, Jala J, Benjamin DJ, Kimball M, Auer PL, Livermore MA, Turley P. A General Approach to Adjusting Genetic Studies for Assortative Mating. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.09.01.555983. [PMID: 37732240 PMCID: PMC10508715 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.01.555983] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/22/2023]
Abstract
The effects of assortative mating (AM) on estimates from genetic studies has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. We extend existing AM theory to more general models of sorting and conclude that correct theory-based AM adjustments require knowledge of complicated, unknown historical sorting patterns. We propose a simple, general-purpose approach using polygenic indexes (PGIs). Our approach can estimate the fraction of genetic variance and genetic correlation that is driven by AM. Our approach is less effective when applied to Mendelian randomization (MR) studies for two reasons: AM can induce a form of selection bias in MR studies that remains after our adjustment; and, in the MR context, the adjustment is particularly sensitive to PGI estimation error. Using data from the UK Biobank, we find that AM inflates genetic correlation estimates between health traits and education by 14% on average. Our results suggest caution in interpreting genetic correlations or MR estimates for traits subject to AM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marta Bilghese
- Department of Finance, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Regina Manansala
- Center for Health Economics Research & Modelling Infectious Diseases, Vaccine & Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp, Campus Drie Eiken, Antwerp, Belgium
| | | | - Jonathan Jala
- UCLA Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Daniel J Benjamin
- UCLA Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Human Genetics Department, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Miles Kimball
- Department of Economics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Paul L Auer
- Division of Biostatistics, Institute for Health & Equity, and Cancer Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee WI, USA
| | | | - Patrick Turley
- Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Horwitz TB, Balbona JV, Paulich KN, Keller MC. Evidence of correlations between human partners based on systematic reviews and meta-analyses of 22 traits and UK Biobank analysis of 133 traits. Nat Hum Behav 2023; 7:1568-1583. [PMID: 37653148 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01672-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2022] [Accepted: 07/03/2023] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
Abstract
Positive correlations between mates can increase trait variation and prevalence, as well as bias estimates from genetically informed study designs. While past studies of similarity between human mating partners have largely found evidence of positive correlations, to our knowledge, no formal meta-analysis has examined human partner correlations across multiple categories of traits. Thus, we conducted systematic reviews and random-effects meta-analyses of human male-female partner correlations across 22 traits commonly studied by psychologists, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, epidemiologists and geneticists. Using ScienceDirect, PubMed and Google Scholar, we incorporated 480 partner correlations from 199 peer-reviewed studies of co-parents, engaged pairs, married pairs and/or cohabitating pairs that were published on or before 16 August 2022. We also calculated 133 trait correlations using up to 79,074 male-female couples in the UK Biobank (UKB). Estimates of the 22 mean meta-analysed correlations ranged from rmeta = 0.08 (adjusted 95% CI = 0.03, 0.13) for extraversion to rmeta = 0.58 (adjusted 95% CI = 0.50, 0.64) for political values, with funnel plots showing little evidence of publication bias across traits. The 133 UKB correlations ranged from rUKB = -0.18 (adjusted 95% CI = -0.20, -0.16) for chronotype (being a 'morning' or 'evening' person) to rUKB = 0.87 (adjusted 95% CI = 0.86, 0.87) for birth year. Across analyses, political and religious attitudes, educational attainment and some substance use traits showed the highest correlations, while psychological (that is, psychiatric/personality) and anthropometric traits generally yielded lower but positive correlations. We observed high levels of between-sample heterogeneity for most meta-analysed traits, probably because of both systematic differences between samples and true differences in partner correlations across populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanya B Horwitz
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
| | - Jared V Balbona
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Katie N Paulich
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Matthew C Keller
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
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Owen MJ, Legge SE, Rees E, Walters JTR, O'Donovan MC. Genomic findings in schizophrenia and their implications. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:3638-3647. [PMID: 37853064 PMCID: PMC10730422 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02293-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Revised: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/03/2023] [Indexed: 10/20/2023]
Abstract
There has been substantial progress in understanding the genetics of schizophrenia over the past 15 years. This has revealed a highly polygenic condition with the majority of the currently explained heritability coming from common alleles of small effect but with additional contributions from rare copy number and coding variants. Many specific genes and loci have been implicated that provide a firm basis upon which mechanistic research can proceed. These point to disturbances in neuronal, and particularly synaptic, functions that are not confined to a small number of brain regions and circuits. Genetic findings have also revealed the nature of schizophrenia's close relationship to other conditions, particularly bipolar disorder and childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, and provided an explanation for how common risk alleles persist in the population in the face of reduced fecundity. Current genomic approaches only potentially explain around 40% of heritability, but only a small proportion of this is attributable to robustly identified loci. The extreme polygenicity poses challenges for understanding biological mechanisms. The high degree of pleiotropy points to the need for more transdiagnostic research and the shortcomings of current diagnostic criteria as means of delineating biologically distinct strata. It also poses challenges for inferring causality in observational and experimental studies in both humans and model systems. Finally, the Eurocentric bias of genomic studies needs to be rectified to maximise benefits and ensure these are felt across diverse communities. Further advances are likely to come through the application of new and emerging technologies, such as whole-genome and long-read sequencing, to large and diverse samples. Substantive progress in biological understanding will require parallel advances in functional genomics and proteomics applied to the brain across developmental stages. For these efforts to succeed in identifying disease mechanisms and defining novel strata they will need to be combined with sufficiently granular phenotypic data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J Owen
- Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
| | - Sophie E Legge
- Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Elliott Rees
- Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - James T R Walters
- Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Michael C O'Donovan
- Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
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Salehi Nowbandegani P, Wohns AW, Ballard JL, Lander ES, Bloemendal A, Neale BM, O'Connor LJ. Extremely sparse models of linkage disequilibrium in ancestrally diverse association studies. Nat Genet 2023; 55:1494-1502. [PMID: 37640881 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01487-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2022] [Accepted: 07/24/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
Linkage disequilibrium (LD) is the correlation among nearby genetic variants. In genetic association studies, LD is often modeled using large correlation matrices, but this approach is inefficient, especially in ancestrally diverse studies. In the present study, we introduce LD graphical models (LDGMs), which are an extremely sparse and efficient representation of LD. LDGMs are derived from genome-wide genealogies; statistical relationships among alleles in the LDGM correspond to genealogical relationships among haplotypes. We published LDGMs and ancestry-specific LDGM precision matrices for 18 million common variants (minor allele frequency >1%) in five ancestry groups, validated their accuracy and demonstrated order-of-magnitude improvements in runtime for commonly used LD matrix computations. We implemented an extremely fast multiancestry polygenic prediction method, BLUPx-ldgm, which performs better than a similar method based on the reference LD correlation matrix. LDGMs will enable sophisticated methods that scale to ancestrally diverse genetic association data across millions of variants and individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pouria Salehi Nowbandegani
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Anthony Wilder Wohns
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
| | - Jenna L Ballard
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Graduate Group in Genomics and Computational Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Eric S Lander
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Biology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Alex Bloemendal
- Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Benjamin M Neale
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Luke J O'Connor
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
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Border R, Malik OA. rBahadur: efficient simulation of structured high-dimensional genotype data with applications to assortative mating. BMC Bioinformatics 2023; 24:314. [PMID: 37596553 PMCID: PMC10439545 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-023-05442-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/09/2023] [Indexed: 08/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Existing methods for generating synthetic genotype data are ill-suited for replicating the effects of assortative mating (AM). We propose rb_dplr, a novel and computationally efficient algorithm for generating high-dimensional binary random variates that effectively recapitulates AM-induced genetic architectures using the Bahadur order-2 approximation of the multivariate Bernoulli distribution. The rBahadur R library is available through the Comprehensive R Archive Network at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rBahadur .
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Border
- Neurology and Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles, 675 Charles E Young Dr S, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
| | - Osman Asif Malik
- Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
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43
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Cousins HC, Cousins CC, Valluru G, Altman RB, Liu Y, Pasquale LR, Ahmad S. Genetic Correlations Among Corneal Biophysical Parameters and Anthropometric Traits. Transl Vis Sci Technol 2023; 12:8. [PMID: 37561511 PMCID: PMC10424803 DOI: 10.1167/tvst.12.8.8] [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: 01/25/2023] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 08/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose The genetic architecture of corneal dysfunction remains poorly understood. Epidemiological and clinical evidence suggests a relationship between corneal structural features and anthropometric measures. We used global and local genetic similarity analysis to identify genomic features that may underlie structural corneal dysfunction. Methods We assembled genome-wide association study summary statistics for corneal features (central corneal thickness, corneal hysteresis [CH], corneal resistance factor [CRF], and the 3 mm index of keratometry) and anthropometric traits (body mass index, weight, and height) in Europeans. We calculated global genetic correlations (rg) between traits using linkage disequilibrium (LD) score regression and local genetic covariance using ρ-HESS, which partitions the genome and performs regression with LD regions. Finally, we identified genes located within regions of significant genetic covariance and analyzed patterns of tissue expression and pathway enrichment. Results Global LD score regression revealed significant negative correlations between height and both CH (rg = -0.12; P = 2.0 × 10-7) and CRF (rg = -0.11; P = 6.9 × 10-7). Local analysis revealed 68 genomic regions exhibiting significant local genetic covariance between CRF and height, containing 2874 unique genes. Pathway analysis of genes in regions with significant local rg revealed enrichment among signaling pathways with known keratoconus associations, including cadherin and Wnt signaling, as well as enrichment of genes modulated by copper and zinc ions. Conclusions Corneal biophysical parameters and height share a common genomic architecture, which may facilitate identification of disease-associated genes and therapies for corneal ectasias. Translational Relevance Local genetic covariance analysis enables the identification of associated genes and therapeutic targets for corneal ectatic disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry C. Cousins
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Clara C. Cousins
- David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Girish Valluru
- Department of Ophthalmology, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Russ B. Altman
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Yutao Liu
- Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA
| | - Louis R. Pasquale
- Department of Ophthalmology, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Sumayya Ahmad
- Department of Ophthalmology, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
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44
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Grotzinger AD, Singh K, Miller-Fleming TW, Lam M, Mallard TT, Chen Y, Liu Z, Ge T, Smoller JW. Transcriptome-Wide Structural Equation Modeling of 13 Major Psychiatric Disorders for Cross-Disorder Risk and Drug Repurposing. JAMA Psychiatry 2023; 80:811-821. [PMID: 37314780 PMCID: PMC10267850 DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.1808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Importance Psychiatric disorders display high levels of comorbidity and genetic overlap, necessitating multivariate approaches for parsing convergent and divergent psychiatric risk pathways. Identifying gene expression patterns underlying cross-disorder risk also stands to propel drug discovery and repurposing in the face of rising levels of polypharmacy. Objective To identify gene expression patterns underlying genetic convergence and divergence across psychiatric disorders along with existing pharmacological interventions that target these genes. Design, Setting, and Participants This genomic study applied a multivariate transcriptomic method, transcriptome-wide structural equation modeling (T-SEM), to investigate gene expression patterns associated with 5 genomic factors indexing shared risk across 13 major psychiatric disorders. Follow-up tests, including overlap with gene sets for other outcomes and phenome-wide association studies, were conducted to better characterize T-SEM results. The Broad Institute Connectivity Map Drug Repurposing Database and Drug-Gene Interaction Database public databases of drug-gene pairs were used to identify drugs that could be repurposed to target genes found to be associated with cross-disorder risk. Data were collected from database inception up to February 20, 2023. Main Outcomes and Measures Gene expression patterns associated with genomic factors or disorder-specific risk and existing drugs that target these genes. Results In total, T-SEM identified 466 genes whose expression was significantly associated (z ≥ 5.02) with genomic factors and 36 genes with disorder-specific effects. Most associated genes were found for a thought disorders factor, defined by bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Several existing pharmacological interventions were identified that could be repurposed to target genes whose expression was associated with the thought disorders factor or a transdiagnostic p factor defined by all 13 disorders. Conclusions and Relevance The findings from this study shed light on patterns of gene expression associated with genetic overlap and uniqueness across psychiatric disorders. Future versions of the multivariate drug repurposing framework outlined here have the potential to identify novel pharmacological interventions for increasingly common, comorbid psychiatric presentations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew D. Grotzinger
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder
| | - Kritika Singh
- Division of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Tyne W. Miller-Fleming
- Division of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Max Lam
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
- Division of Psychiatry Research, The Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health, Glen Oaks, New York
- Research Division, Institute of Mental Health Singapore, Singapore
- Human Genetics, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Travis T. Mallard
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
- Center for Precision Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
| | - Yu Chen
- Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
- Center for Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Zhaowen Liu
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
- Center for Precision Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
| | - Tian Ge
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
- Center for Precision Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
| | - Jordan W. Smoller
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
- Center for Precision Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
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45
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Morrill K, Chen F, Karlsson E. Comparative neurogenetics of dog behavior complements efforts towards human neuropsychiatric genetics. Hum Genet 2023; 142:1231-1246. [PMID: 37578529 DOI: 10.1007/s00439-023-02580-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023]
Abstract
Domestic dogs display a wide array of heritable behaviors that have intermediate genetic complexity thanks to a long history of human-influenced selection. Comparative genetics in dogs could address the scarcity of non-human neurogenetic systems relevant to human neuropsychiatric disorders, which are characterized by mental, emotional, and behavioral symptoms and involve vastly complex genetic and non-genetic risk factors. Our review describes the diverse behavioral "phenome" of domestic dogs, past and ongoing sources of behavioral selection, and the state of canine behavioral genetics. We highlight two naturally disordered behavioral domains that illustrate how dogs may prove useful as a comparative, forward neurogenetic system: canine age-related cognitive dysfunction, which can be examined more rapidly given the attenuated lifespan of dogs, and compulsive disorders, which may have genetic roots in purpose-bred behaviors. Growing community science initiatives aimed at the companion dog population will be well suited to investigating such complex behavioral phenotypes and offer a comparative resource that parallels human genomic initiatives in scale and dimensionality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen Morrill
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
- Vertebrate Genome Biology, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
| | - Frances Chen
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
- Vertebrate Genome Biology, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Elinor Karlsson
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
- Vertebrate Genome Biology, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
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LaPierre N, Fu B, Turnbull S, Eskin E, Sankararaman S. Leveraging family data to design Mendelian randomization that is provably robust to population stratification. Genome Res 2023; 33:1032-1041. [PMID: 37197991 PMCID: PMC10538495 DOI: 10.1101/gr.277664.123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2023] [Accepted: 04/16/2023] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Mendelian randomization (MR) has emerged as a powerful approach to leverage genetic instruments to infer causality between pairs of traits in observational studies. However, the results of such studies are susceptible to biases owing to weak instruments, as well as the confounding effects of population stratification and horizontal pleiotropy. Here, we show that family data can be leveraged to design MR tests that are provably robust to confounding from population stratification, assortative mating, and dynastic effects. We show in simulations that our approach, MR-Twin, is robust to confounding from population stratification and is not affected by weak instrument bias, whereas standard MR methods yield inflated false positive rates. We then conduct an exploratory analysis of MR-Twin and other MR methods applied to 121 trait pairs in the UK Biobank data set. Our results suggest that confounding from population stratification can lead to false positives for existing MR methods, whereas MR-Twin is immune to this type of confounding, and that MR-Twin can help assess whether traditional approaches may be inflated owing to confounding from population stratification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan LaPierre
- Department of Computer Science, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA;
| | - Boyang Fu
- Department of Computer Science, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - Steven Turnbull
- Department of Statistics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - Eleazar Eskin
- Department of Computer Science, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
- Department of Computational Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - Sriram Sankararaman
- Department of Computer Science, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA;
- Department of Computational Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
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Abstract
Evolutionary biology provides a crucial foundation for medicine and behavioral science that has been missing from psychiatry. Its absence helps to explain slow progress; its advent promises major advances. Instead of offering a new kind of treatment, evolutionary psychiatry provides a scientific foundation useful for all kinds of treatment. It expands the search for causes from mechanistic explanations for disease in some individuals to evolutionary explanations for traits that make all members of a species vulnerable to disease. For instance, capacities for symptoms such as pain, cough, anxiety and low mood are universal because they are useful in certain situations. Failing to recognize the utility of anxiety and low mood is at the root of many problems in psychiatry. Determining if an emotion is normal and if it is useful requires understanding an individual's life situation. Conducting a review of social systems, parallel to the review of systems in the rest of medicine, can help achieve that understanding. Coping with substance abuse is advanced by acknowledging how substances available in modern environments hijack chemically mediated learning mechanisms. Understanding why eating spirals out of control in modern environments is aided by recognizing the motivations for caloric restriction and how it arouses famine protection mechanisms that induce binge eating. Finally, explaining the persistence of alleles that cause serious mental disorders requires evolutionary explanations of why some systems are intrinsically vulnerable to failure. The thrill of finding functions for apparent diseases is evolutionary psychiatry's greatest strength and weakness. Recognizing bad feelings as evolved adaptations corrects psychiatry's pervasive mistake of viewing all symptoms as if they were disease manifestations. However, viewing diseases such as panic disorder, melancholia and schizophrenia as if they are adaptations is an equally serious mistake in evolutionary psychiatry. Progress will come from framing and testing specific hypotheses about why natural selection left us vulnerable to mental disorders. The efforts of many people over many years will be needed before we will know if evolutionary biology can provide a new paradigm for understanding and treating mental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Randolph M Nesse
- Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
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Flint J. The genetic basis of major depressive disorder. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:2254-2265. [PMID: 36702864 PMCID: PMC10611584 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-01957-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2022] [Revised: 12/30/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
The genetic dissection of major depressive disorder (MDD) ranks as one of the success stories of psychiatric genetics, with genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identifying 178 genetic risk loci and proposing more than 200 candidate genes. However, the GWAS results derive from the analysis of cohorts in which most cases are diagnosed by minimal phenotyping, a method that has low specificity. I review data indicating that there is a large genetic component unique to MDD that remains inaccessible to minimal phenotyping strategies and that the majority of genetic risk loci identified with minimal phenotyping approaches are unlikely to be MDD risk loci. I show that inventive uses of biobank data, novel imputation methods, combined with more interviewer diagnosed cases, can identify loci that contribute to the episodic severe shifts of mood, and neurovegetative and cognitive changes that are central to MDD. Furthermore, new theories about the nature and causes of MDD, drawing upon advances in neuroscience and psychology, can provide handles on how best to interpret and exploit genetic mapping results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Flint
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Billy and Audrey Wilder Endowed Chair in Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, 695 Charles E. Young Drive South, 3357B Gonda, Box 951761, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1761, USA.
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49
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Sjaarda J, Kutalik Z. Partner choice, confounding and trait convergence all contribute to phenotypic partner similarity. Nat Hum Behav 2023; 7:776-789. [PMID: 36928782 PMCID: PMC10202815 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01500-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2022] [Accepted: 11/17/2022] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
Partners are often similar in terms of their physical and behavioural traits, such as their education, political affiliation and height. However, it is currently unclear what exactly causes this similarity-partner choice, partner influence increasing similarity over time or confounding factors such as shared environment or indirect assortment. Here, we applied Mendelian randomization to the data of 51,664 couples in the UK Biobank and investigated partner similarity in 118 traits. We found evidence of partner choice for 64 traits, 40 of which had larger phenotypic correlation than causal effect. This suggests that confounders contribute to trait similarity, among which household income, overall health rating and education accounted for 29.8, 14.1 and 11.6% of correlations between partners, respectively. Finally, mediation analysis revealed that most causal associations between different traits in the two partners are indirect. In summary, our results show the mechanisms through which indirect assortment increases the observed partner similarity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Sjaarda
- University Center for Primary Care and Public Health, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Zoltán Kutalik
- University Center for Primary Care and Public Health, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Mallard TT, Grotzinger AD, Smoller JW. Examining the shared etiology of psychopathology with genome-wide association studies. Physiol Rev 2023; 103:1645-1665. [PMID: 36634217 PMCID: PMC9988537 DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00016.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2022] [Revised: 12/19/2022] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have ushered in a new era of reproducible discovery in psychiatric genetics. The field has now identified hundreds of common genetic variants that are associated with mental disorders, and many of them influence more than one disorder. By advancing the understanding of causal biology underlying psychopathology, GWAS results are poised to inform the development of novel therapeutics, stratification of at-risk patients, and perhaps even the revision of top-down classification systems in psychiatry. Here, we provide a concise review of GWAS findings with an emphasis on findings that have elucidated the shared genetic etiology of psychopathology, summarizing insights at three levels of analysis: 1) genome-wide architecture; 2) networks, pathways, and gene sets; and 3) individual variants/genes. Three themes emerge from these efforts. First, all psychiatric phenotypes are heritable, highly polygenic, and influenced by many pleiotropic variants with incomplete penetrance. Second, GWAS results highlight the broad etiological roles of neuronal biology, system-wide effects over localized effects, and early neurodevelopment as a critical period. Third, many loci that are robustly associated with multiple forms of psychopathology harbor genes that are involved in synaptic structure and function. Finally, we conclude our review by discussing the implications that GWAS results hold for the field of psychiatry, as well as expected challenges and future directions in the next stage of psychiatric genetics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Travis T Mallard
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
| | - Andrew D Grotzinger
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States
| | - Jordan W Smoller
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
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