Incorporating prior biologic information for high-dimensional rare variant association studies.
Hum Hered 2013;
74:184-95. [PMID:
23594496 DOI:
10.1159/000346021]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Given the increasing scale of rare variant association studies, we introduce a method for high-dimensional studies that integrates multiple sources of data as well as allows for multiple region-specific risk indices.
METHODS
Our method builds upon the previous Bayesian risk index by integrating external biological variant-specific covariates to help guide the selection of associated variants and regions. Our extension also incorporates a second level of uncertainty as to which regions are associated with the outcome of interest.
RESULTS
Using a set of study-based simulations, we show that our approach leads to an increase in power to detect true associations in comparison to several commonly used alternatives. Additionally, the method provides multi-level inference at the pathway, region and variant levels.
CONCLUSION
To demonstrate the flexibility of the method to incorporate various types of information and the applicability to high-dimensional data, we apply our method to a single region within a candidate gene study of second primary breast cancer and to multiple regions within a candidate pathway study of colon cancer.
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