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Belloy ME, Eger SJ, Le Guen Y, Damotte V, Ahmad S, Ikram MA, Ramirez A, Tsolaki AC, Rossi G, Jansen IE, de Rojas I, Parveen K, Sleegers K, Ingelsson M, Hiltunen M, Amin N, Andreassen O, Sánchez-Juan P, Kehoe P, Amouyel P, Sims R, Frikke-Schmidt R, van der Flier WM, Lambert JC, He Z, Han SS, Napolioni V, Greicius MD. Challenges at the APOE locus: a robust quality control approach for accurate APOE genotyping. Alzheimers Res Ther 2022; 14:22. [PMID: 35120553 PMCID: PMC8815198 DOI: 10.1186/s13195-022-00962-4] [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] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2021] [Accepted: 01/12/2022] [Indexed: 04/22/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Genetic variants within the APOE locus may modulate Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk independently or in conjunction with APOE*2/3/4 genotypes. Identifying such variants and mechanisms would importantly advance our understanding of APOE pathophysiology and provide critical guidance for AD therapies aimed at APOE. The APOE locus however remains relatively poorly understood in AD, owing to multiple challenges that include its complex linkage structure and uncertainty in APOE*2/3/4 genotype quality. Here, we present a novel APOE*2/3/4 filtering approach and showcase its relevance on AD risk association analyses for the rs439401 variant, which is located 1801 base pairs downstream of APOE and has been associated with a potential regulatory effect on APOE. METHODS We used thirty-two AD-related cohorts, with genetic data from various high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism microarrays, whole-genome sequencing, and whole-exome sequencing. Study participants were filtered to be ages 60 and older, non-Hispanic, of European ancestry, and diagnosed as cognitively normal or AD (n = 65,701). Primary analyses investigated AD risk in APOE*4/4 carriers. Additional supporting analyses were performed in APOE*3/4 and 3/3 strata. Outcomes were compared under two different APOE*2/3/4 filtering approaches. RESULTS Using more conventional APOE*2/3/4 filtering criteria (approach 1), we showed that, when in-phase with APOE*4, rs439401 was variably associated with protective effects on AD case-control status. However, when applying a novel filter that increases the certainty of the APOE*2/3/4 genotypes by applying more stringent criteria for concordance between the provided APOE genotype and imputed APOE genotype (approach 2), we observed that all significant effects were lost. CONCLUSIONS We showed that careful consideration of APOE genotype and appropriate sample filtering were crucial to robustly interrogate the role of the APOE locus on AD risk. Our study presents a novel APOE filtering approach and provides important guidelines for research into the APOE locus, as well as for elucidating genetic interaction effects with APOE*2/3/4.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael E Belloy
- Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences - Greicius lab, Stanford University, 290 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA, 94304, USA.
| | - Sarah J Eger
- Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences - Greicius lab, Stanford University, 290 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Yann Le Guen
- Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences - Greicius lab, Stanford University, 290 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Vincent Damotte
- Univ. Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1167-RID-AGE Facteurs de risque et déterminants moléculaires des maladies liées au vieillissement, Lille, France
| | - Shahzad Ahmad
- Department of Epidemiology, ErasmusMC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Division of Systems Biomedicine and Pharmacology, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - M Arfan Ikram
- Department of Epidemiology, ErasmusMC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Alfredo Ramirez
- Division of Neurogenetics and Molecular Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Department of Neurodegenerative diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry & Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases, San Antonio, TX, USA
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-associated Diseases (CECAD), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Anthoula C Tsolaki
- 1st Department of Neurology, AHEPA Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Athens, Greece
| | - Giacomina Rossi
- Unit of Neurology V and Neuropathology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy
| | - Iris E Jansen
- Alzheimer Center Amsterdam, Department of Neurology, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Department of Complex Trait Genetics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Itziar de Rojas
- Research Center and Memory Clinic, ACE Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
- Networking Research Center on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Kayenat Parveen
- Division of Neurogenetics and Molecular Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Department of Neurodegenerative diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Kristel Sleegers
- Complex Genetics of Alzheimer's Disease Group, Center for Molecular Neurology, VIB, Antwerp, Belgium
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Martin Ingelsson
- Department of Public Health and Carins Sciences/Geriatrics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Mikko Hiltunen
- Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland, Yliopistonranta 1E, 70211, Kuopio, Finland
| | - Najaf Amin
- Department of Epidemiology, ErasmusMC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Nuffield Department of Population Health Oxford University, Oxford, UK
| | - Ole Andreassen
- NORMENT Centre, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Pascual Sánchez-Juan
- CIBERNED, Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, National Institute of Health Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
- Neurology Service, Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital (University of Cantabria and IDIVAL), Santander, Spain
| | - Patrick Kehoe
- Translational Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Philippe Amouyel
- Univ. Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1167-RID-AGE Facteurs de risque et déterminants moléculaires des maladies liées au vieillissement, Lille, France
| | - Rebecca Sims
- Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
| | - Ruth Frikke-Schmidt
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Wiesje M van der Flier
- Alzheimer Center Amsterdam, Department of Neurology, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Jean-Charles Lambert
- Univ. Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1167-RID-AGE Facteurs de risque et déterminants moléculaires des maladies liées au vieillissement, Lille, France
| | - Zihuai He
- Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences - Greicius lab, Stanford University, 290 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA, 94304, USA
- Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Summer S Han
- Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94304, USA
- Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94304, USA
| | - Valerio Napolioni
- School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, 62032, Camerino, Italy
| | - Michael D Greicius
- Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences - Greicius lab, Stanford University, 290 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA, 94304, USA
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