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Stauffer EM, Bethlehem RAI, Dorfschmidt L, Won H, Warrier V, Bullmore ET. The genetic relationships between brain structure and schizophrenia. Nat Commun 2023; 14:7820. [PMID: 38016951 PMCID: PMC10684873 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43567-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Genetic risks for schizophrenia are theoretically mediated by genetic effects on brain structure but it has been unclear which genes are associated with both schizophrenia and cortical phenotypes. We accessed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of schizophrenia (N = 69,369 cases; 236,642 controls), and of three magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) metrics (surface area, cortical thickness, neurite density index) measured at 180 cortical areas (N = 36,843, UK Biobank). Using Hi-C-coupled MAGMA, 61 genes were significantly associated with both schizophrenia and one or more MRI metrics. Whole genome analysis with partial least squares demonstrated significant genetic covariation between schizophrenia and area or thickness of most cortical regions. Genetic similarity between cortical areas was strongly coupled to their phenotypic covariance, and genetic covariation between schizophrenia and brain phenotypes was strongest in the hubs of structural covariance networks. Pleiotropically associated genes were enriched for neurodevelopmental processes and positionally concentrated in chromosomes 3p21, 17q21 and 11p11. Mendelian randomization analysis indicated that genetically determined variation in a posterior cingulate cortical area could be causal for schizophrenia. Parallel analyses of GWAS on bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease and height showed that pleiotropic association with MRI metrics was stronger for schizophrenia compared to other disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Richard A I Bethlehem
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Lena Dorfschmidt
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Hyejung Won
- Department of Genetics and the Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Varun Warrier
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Edward T Bullmore
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK
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Warrier V, Stauffer EM, Huang QQ, Wigdor EM, Slob EAW, Seidlitz J, Ronan L, Valk SL, Mallard TT, Grotzinger AD, Romero-Garcia R, Baron-Cohen S, Geschwind DH, Lancaster MA, Murray GK, Gandal MJ, Alexander-Bloch A, Won H, Martin HC, Bullmore ET, Bethlehem RAI. Genetic insights into human cortical organization and development through genome-wide analyses of 2,347 neuroimaging phenotypes. Nat Genet 2023; 55:1483-1493. [PMID: 37592024 PMCID: PMC10600728 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01475-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2023] [Indexed: 08/19/2023]
Abstract
Our understanding of the genetics of the human cerebral cortex is limited both in terms of the diversity and the anatomical granularity of brain structural phenotypes. Here we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 13 structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging-derived cortical phenotypes, measured globally and at 180 bilaterally averaged regions in 36,663 individuals and identified 4,349 experiment-wide significant loci. These phenotypes include cortical thickness, surface area, gray matter volume, measures of folding, neurite density and water diffusion. We identified four genetic latent structures and causal relationships between surface area and some measures of cortical folding. These latent structures partly relate to different underlying gene expression trajectories during development and are enriched for different cell types. We also identified differential enrichment for neurodevelopmental and constrained genes and demonstrate that common genetic variants associated with cortical expansion are associated with cephalic disorders. Finally, we identified complex interphenotype and inter-regional genetic relationships among the 13 phenotypes, reflecting the developmental differences among them. Together, these analyses identify distinct genetic organizational principles of the cortex and their correlates with neurodevelopment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Varun Warrier
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| | | | | | | | - Eric A W Slob
- Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Department of Applied Economics, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Erasmus University Rotterdam Institute for Behavior and Biology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Jakob Seidlitz
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Lisa Ronan
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Sofie L Valk
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, FZ Jülich, Jülich, Germany
- Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Otto Hahn Group Cognitive Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - 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
| | - Andrew D Grotzinger
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Rafael Romero-Garcia
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBiS) HUVR/CSIC/Universidad de Sevilla/CIBERSAM, ISCIII, Dpto. de Fisiología Médica y Biofísica, Seville, Spain
| | - Simon Baron-Cohen
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Daniel H Geschwind
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Jane and TerrySemel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Institute of Precision Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Madeline A Lancaster
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge, UK
| | - Graham K Murray
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust, Cambridge, UK
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Michael J Gandal
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Aaron Alexander-Bloch
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Hyejung Won
- Department of Genetics and the Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | | | - Edward T Bullmore
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust, Cambridge, UK
| | - Richard A I Bethlehem
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
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Stauffer EM, Bethlehem RAI, Warrier V, Murray GK, Romero-Garcia R, Seidlitz J, Bullmore ET. Grey and white matter microstructure is associated with polygenic risk for schizophrenia. Mol Psychiatry 2021; 26:7709-7718. [PMID: 34462574 PMCID: PMC8872982 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01260-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Revised: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Recent discovery of approximately 270 common genetic variants associated with schizophrenia has enabled polygenic risk scores (PRS) to be measured in the population. We hypothesized that normal variation in PRS would be associated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) phenotypes of brain morphometry and tissue composition. We used the largest extant genome-wide association dataset (N = 69,369 cases and N = 236,642 healthy controls) to measure PRS for schizophrenia in a large sample of adults from the UK Biobank (Nmax = 29,878) who had multiple micro- and macrostructural MRI metrics measured at each of 180 cortical areas, seven subcortical structures, and 15 major white matter tracts. Linear mixed-effect models were used to investigate associations between PRS and brain structure at global and regional scales, controlled for multiple comparisons. Polygenic risk was significantly associated with reduced neurite density index (NDI) at global brain scale, at 149 cortical regions, five subcortical structures, and 14 white matter tracts. Other microstructural parameters, e.g., fractional anisotropy, that were correlated with NDI were also significantly associated with PRS. Genetic effects on multiple MRI phenotypes were co-located in temporal, cingulate, and prefrontal cortical areas, insula, and hippocampus. Post-hoc bidirectional Mendelian randomization analyses provided preliminary evidence in support of a causal relationship between (reduced) thalamic NDI and (increased) risk of schizophrenia. Risk-related reduction in NDI is plausibly indicative of reduced density of myelinated axons and dendritic arborization in large-scale cortico-subcortical networks. Cortical, subcortical, and white matter microstructure may be linked to the genetic mechanisms of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva-Maria Stauffer
- Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Richard A I Bethlehem
- Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Varun Warrier
- Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Graham K Murray
- Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust, Elizabeth House, Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge, UK.,Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Rafael Romero-Garcia
- Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Jakob Seidlitz
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Edward T Bullmore
- Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust, Elizabeth House, Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge, UK
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