GWAS for autoimmune Addison's disease identifies multiple risk loci and highlights AIRE in disease susceptibility.

Eriksson D, Røyrvik EC, Aranda-Guillén M, Berger AH, Landegren N, Artaza H, Hallgren Å, Grytaas MA, Ström S, Bratland E, Botusan IR, Oftedal BE, Breivik L, Vaudel M, Helgeland Ø, Falorni A, Jørgensen AP, Hulting AL, Svartberg J, Ekwall O, Fougner KJ, Wahlberg J, Nedrebø BG, Dahlqvist P, Norwegian Addison Registry Study Group , Swedish Addison Registry Study Group , Knappskog PM, Wolff ASB, Bensing S, Johansson S, Kämpe O, Husebye ES

Nat Commun 12 (1) 959 [2021-02-11; online 2021-02-11]

Autoimmune Addison's disease (AAD) is characterized by the autoimmune destruction of the adrenal cortex. Low prevalence and complex inheritance have long hindered successful genetic studies. We here report the first genome-wide association study on AAD, which identifies nine independent risk loci (P < 5 × 10-8). In addition to loci implicated in lymphocyte function and development shared with other autoimmune diseases such as HLA, BACH2, PTPN22 and CTLA4, we associate two protein-coding alterations in Autoimmune Regulator (AIRE) with AAD. The strongest, p.R471C (rs74203920, OR = 3.4 (2.7-4.3), P = 9.0 × 10-25) introduces an additional cysteine residue in the zinc-finger motif of the second PHD domain of the AIRE protein. This unbiased elucidation of the genetic contribution to development of AAD points to the importance of central immunological tolerance, and explains 35-41% of heritability (h2).

Bioinformatics Support for Computational Resources [Service]

PubMed 33574239

DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-21015-8

Crossref 10.1038/s41467-021-21015-8

pii: 10.1038/s41467-021-21015-8
pmc: PMC7878795