Shared genetic origin of asthma, hay fever and eczema elucidates allergic disease biology.

Ferreira MA, Vonk JM, Baurecht H, Marenholz I, Tian C, Hoffman JD, Helmer Q, Tillander A, Ullemar V, van Dongen J, Lu Y, Rüschendorf F, Esparza-Gordillo J, Medway CW, Mountjoy E, Burrows K, Hummel O, Grosche S, Brumpton BM, Witte JS, Hottenga JJ, Willemsen G, Zheng J, Rodríguez E, Hotze M, Franke A, Revez JA, Beesley J, Matheson MC, Dharmage SC, Bain LM, Fritsche LG, Gabrielsen ME, Balliu B, 23andMe Research Team , AAGC collaborators , BIOS consortium , LifeLines Cohort Study , Nielsen JB, Zhou W, Hveem K, Langhammer A, Holmen OL, Løset M, Abecasis GR, Willer CJ, Arnold A, Homuth G, Schmidt CO, Thompson PJ, Martin NG, Duffy DL, Novak N, Schulz H, Karrasch S, Gieger C, Strauch K, Melles RB, Hinds DA, Hübner N, Weidinger S, Magnusson PKE, Jansen R, Jorgenson E, Lee YA, Boomsma DI, Almqvist C, Karlsson R, Koppelman GH, Paternoster L

Nat. Genet. 49 (12) 1752-1757 [2017-12-00; online 2017-10-30]

Asthma, hay fever (or allergic rhinitis) and eczema (or atopic dermatitis) often coexist in the same individuals, partly because of a shared genetic origin. To identify shared risk variants, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS; n = 360,838) of a broad allergic disease phenotype that considers the presence of any one of these three diseases. We identified 136 independent risk variants (P < 3 × 10-8), including 73 not previously reported, which implicate 132 nearby genes in allergic disease pathophysiology. Disease-specific effects were detected for only six variants, confirming that most represent shared risk factors. Tissue-specific heritability and biological process enrichment analyses suggest that shared risk variants influence lymphocyte-mediated immunity. Six target genes provide an opportunity for drug repositioning, while for 36 genes CpG methylation was found to influence transcription independently of genetic effects. Asthma, hay fever and eczema partly coexist because they share many genetic risk variants that dysregulate the expression of immune-related genes.

NGI Uppsala (SNP&SEQ Technology Platform) [Service]

National Genomics Infrastructure [Service]

PubMed 29083406

DOI 10.1038/ng.3985

Crossref 10.1038/ng.3985

mid: EMS74439
pmc: PMC5989923
pii: ng.3985


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