Genetic variants in Hippo pathway genes are associated with house dust mite-induced allergic rhinitis in a Chinese population

Background

House dust mite (HDM)‐induced allergic rhinitis (AR) is a highly prevalent disease with bothersome symptoms. Genetic variants of the Hippo pathway genes play a critical role in the respiratory disease. However, no study has reported associations between variants of the Hippo pathway genes and HDM‐induced AR risk.

Methods

Forty‐three key genes in the Hippo pathway were selected from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), Reactome pathway database, and previous reported studies. A case‐control study of 222 cases and 237 controls was performed to assess the associations between 121 genetic variants in these genes and HDM‐induced AR risk. DNeasy Blood & Tissues Kits were used for extracting genomic DNA from the venous blood and Infinium Asian Screening Array BeadChips for performing genotyping. A logistic regression model was applied to evaluate the effects of variants on HDM‐induced AR risk. The false discovery rate (FDR) method was utilized to correct for multiple testing. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to obtain the cut‐off value of total IgE for the diagnosis of HDM‐induced AR. Histone modification and transcription factor binding sites were visualized by UCSC genome browser. Moreover, expression qualitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis was obtained from Genotype‐Tissue Expression (GTEx) database.

Results

We found that rs754466 in DLG5 was significantly associated with a decreased HDM‐induced AR risk after FDR correction (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.36–0.74, p = 3.25 × 10⁻⁴, P_FDR = 3.93 × 10⁻²). The rs754466 A allele reduced the risk of HDM‐induced AR in the subgroup of moderate/severe total nasal symptom score (TNSS). Furthermore, rs754466 was associated with a high mRNA expression of DLG5. Additionally, histone modification and transcription factor binding sites were rich in the region containing rs754466.

Conclusion

Our findings indicated that rs754466 in DLG5 decreased the susceptibility to HDM‐induced AR.

Genetic predisposition to gestational glucose metabolism and gestational diabetes mellitus risk in a Chinese population

BACKGROUND

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several genetic variants affecting gestational glucose metabolism. However, information regarding their known associations with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk remains scarce.

METHODS

This study examined the associations of 12 gestational glucose metabolism-related variants with GDM risk in a Chinese population (964 GDM cases, 1021 controls). Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

Rs10830963 in melatonin receptor 1B (MTNR1B) was found to be associated with an increased risk of GDM, after adjusting for age, prepregnancy body mass index, parity, abnormal pregnancy history, and family history of diabetes (OR 1.20; 95% CI 1.05-1.36; P = 0.007). Compared with women with a family history of diabetes, there was a significant association of rs7936247 with GDM risk among pregnant women without a family history of diabetes (OR 1.20; 95% CI 1.04-1.38; P = 0.014; P_{heterogeneity}  = 0.035). Further functional annotations showed that rs10830963 and rs7936247 fell in the functional elements of human pancreatic islets. Genotype-phenotype associations indicated that the variants may contribute to GDM risk by affecting the expression of nearby or distant genes.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study suggest that rs10830963 and rs7936247 may be markers for susceptibility to GDM in a Chinese population. Additional studies are warranted to validate our findings and clarify the underlying mechanism.