Browsing by Subject "genome-wide association study"

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    Genetic variants in ELOVL2 and HSD17B12 predict melanoma-specific survival.
    (International journal of cancer, 2019-02-08) Dai, Wei; Liu, Hongliang; Xu, Xinyuan; Ge, Jie; Luo, Sheng; Zhu, Dakai; Amos, Christopher I; Fang, Shenying; Lee, Jeffrey E; Li, Xin; Nan, Hongmei; Li, Chunying; Wei, Qingyi
    Fatty acids play a key role in cellular bioenergetics, membrane biosynthesis and intracellular signaling processes and thus may be involved in cancer development and progression. In the present study, we comprehensively assessed associations of 14,522 common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 149 genes of the fatty-acid synthesis pathway with cutaneous melanoma disease-specific survival (CMSS). The dataset of 858 cutaneous melanoma (CM) patients from a published genome-wide association study (GWAS) by The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center was used as the discovery dataset, and the identified significant SNPs were validated by a dataset of 409 CM patients from another GWAS from the Nurses' Health and Health Professionals Follow-up Studies. We found 40 noteworthy SNPs to be associated with CMSS in both discovery and validation datasets after multiple comparison correction by the false positive report probability method, because more than 85% of the SNPs were imputed. By performing functional prediction, linkage disequilibrium analysis, and stepwise Cox regression selection, we identified two independent SNPs of ELOVL2 rs3734398 T>C and HSD17B12 rs11037684 A>G that predicted CMSS, with an allelic hazards ratio of 0.66 (95% confidence interval = 0.51-0.84 and p = 8.34 × 10-4 ) and 2.29 (1.55-3.39 and p = 3.61 × 10-5 ), respectively. Finally, the ELOVL2 rs3734398 variant CC genotype was found to be associated with a significantly increased mRNA expression level. These SNPs may be potential markers for CM prognosis, if validated by additional larger and mechanistic studies.
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    Genetic variants in PDSS1 and SLC16A6 of the ketone body metabolic pathway predict cutaneous melanoma-specific survival.
    (Molecular carcinogenesis, 2020-06) Dai, Wei; Liu, Hongliang; Chen, Ka; Xu, Xinyuan; Qian, Danwen; Luo, Sheng; Amos, Christopher I; Lee, Jeffrey E; Li, Xin; Nan, Hongmei; Li, Chunying; Wei, Qingyi
    A few single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified to be associated with cutaneous melanoma (CM) survival through genome-wide association studies, but stringent multiple testing corrections required for the hypothesis-free testing may have masked some true associations. Using a hypothesis-driven analysis approach, we sought to evaluate associations between SNPs in ketone body metabolic pathway genes and CM survival. We comprehensively assessed associations between 4196 (538 genotyped and 3658 imputed) common SNPs in 44 ketone body metabolic pathway genes and CM survival, using a dataset of 858 patients of a case-control study from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as the discovery set and another dataset of 409 patients from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study as the replication set. There were 95/858 (11.1%) and 48/409 (11.7%) patients who died of CM, respectively. We identified two independent SNPs (ie, PDSS1 rs12254548 G>C and SLC16A6 rs71387392 G>A) that were associated with CM survival, with allelic hazards ratios of 0.58 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.44-0.76, P = 9.00 × 10-5 ) and 1.98 (95% CI = 1.34-2.94, P = 6.30 × 10-4 ), respectively. Additionally, associations between genotypes of the SNPs and messenger RNA expression levels of their corresponding genes support the biologic plausibility of a role for these two variants in CM tumor progression and survival. Once validated by other larger studies, PDSS1 rs12254548 and SLC16A6 rs71387392 may be valuable biomarkers for CM survival.
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    Genetic variants in the folate metabolic pathway genes predict melanoma-specific survival.
    (The British journal of dermatology, 2020-01-18) Dai, W; Liu, H; Liu, Y; Xu, X; Qian, D; Luo, S; Cho, E; Zhu, D; Amos, CI; Fang, S; Lee, JE; Li, X; Nan, H; Li, C; Wei, Q
    BACKGROUND:Folate metabolism plays an important role in DNA methylation and nucleic acid synthesis and thus may function as a regulatory factor in cancer development. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified some single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with cutaneous melanoma-specific survival (CMSS), but no SNPs were found in genes involved in the folate metabolic pathway. OBJECTIVE:To examine associations between SNPs in folate metabolic pathway genes and CMSS. METHODS:We comprehensively evaluated 2,645 (422 genotyped and 2,223 imputed) common SNPs in folate metabolic pathway genes from a published GWAS of 858 patients from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and performed the validation in another GWAS of 409 patients from the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, in which 95/858 (11.1%) and 48/409 (11.5%) patients died of cutaneous melanoma, respectively. RESULTS:We identified two independent SNPs (MTHFD1 rs1950902 G>A and ALPL rs10917006 C>T) to be associated with CMSS in both datasets, and their meta-analysis yielded an allelic hazards ratio of 1.75 (95% confidence interval=1.32-2.32, P=9.96×10-5 ) and 2.05 (1.39-3.01, P=2.84×10-4 ), respectively. The genotype-phenotype correlation analyses provided additional support for biologic plausibility of these two variants' roles in tumour progression, suggesting that variation in SNP-related mRNA expression levels is likely to be the mechanism underlying the observed associations with CMSS. CONCLUSION:Two possibly functional genetic variants, MTHFD1 rs1950902 and ALPL rs10917006, were likely to be independently or jointly associated with CMSS, which may add to personalized treatment in the future, once further validated.
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    Genetic variants in the liver kinase B1-AMP-activated protein kinase pathway genes and pancreatic cancer risk.
    (Molecular carcinogenesis, 2019-04-17) Xu, Xinyuan; Qian, Danwen; Liu, Hongliang; Cruz, Diana; Luo, Sheng; Walsh, Kyle M; Abbruzzese, James L; Zhang, Xuefeng; Wei, Qingyi
    The liver kinase B1-AMP-activated protein kinase (LKB1-AMPK) pathway has been identified as a new target for cancer therapy, because it controls the glucose and lipid metabolism in response to alterations in nutrients and intracellular energy levels. In the present study, we aimed to identify genetic variants of the LKB1-AMPK pathway genes and their associations with pancreatic cancer (PanC) risk using 15 418 participants of European ancestry from two previously published PanC genome-wide association studies. We found that six novel tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (i.e, MAP2 rs35075084 T > deletion, PRKAG2 rs2727572 C > T and rs34852782 A > deletion, TP53 rs9895829 A > G, and RPTOR rs62068300 G > A and rs3751936 G > C) were significantly associated with an increased PanC risk. The multivariate logistic regression model incorporating the number of unfavorable genotypes (NUGs) with adjustment for age and sex showed that carriers with five to six NUGs had an increased PanC risk (odds ratio = 1.24, 95% confidence interval = 1.16-1.32 and P < 0.0001), compared to those with zero to four NUGs. Subsequent expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis further revealed that these SNPs were associated with significantly altered mRNA expression levels either in 373 normal lymphoblastoid cell lines (TP53 SNP rs9895829, P < 0.05) or in whole blood cells of 369 normal donors from the genotype-tissue expression project (GTEx) database [RPTOR SNP rs60268947 and rs28434589, both in high linkage disequilibrium (r2  > 0.9) withRPTOR rs62068300, P < 0.001]. Collectively, our findings suggest that these novel SNPs in the LKB1-AMPK pathway genes may modify susceptibility to PanC, possibly by influencing gene expression.
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    Genetic variants of BIRC3 and NRG1 in the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway are associated with non-small cell lung cancer survival.
    (American journal of cancer research, 2020-01) Tang, Dongfang; Liu, Hongliang; Zhao, Yuchen; Qian, Danwen; Luo, Sheng; Patz, Edward F; Su, Li; Shen, Sipeng; ChristianI, David C; Gao, Wen; Wei, Qingyi
    The nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) is one of the most characterized inflammasomes, and its genetic variation and functional dysregulation are involved in pathogenesis of several cancers. To systematically evaluate the role of NLRP3 in predicting outcomes of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we performed a two-phase analysis for associations between genetic variants in NLRP3 inflammasome pathway genes and NSCLC survival by using a published genome-wide association study (GWAS) dataset from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial. We used multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis with Bayesian false discovery probability (≤0.80) for multiple testing correction to evaluate associations between 20,730 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 176 genes and overall survival of 1,185 NSCLC patients from the PLCO trial. We further validated the identified significant SNPs in another GWAS dataset with survival data from 984 NSCLC patients of the Harvard Lung Cancer Susceptibility (HLCS) study. The results showed that two independent SNPs in two different genes (i.e., BIRC3 rs11225211 and NRG1 rs4733124) were significantly associated with the NSCLC overall survival, with a combined hazards ratio (HR) of 0.83 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.74-0.93 and P = 0.0009] and 1.18 (95% CI = 1.06-1.31) and P = 0.002], respectively. However, further expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis showed no evidence for correlations between the two SNPs and mRNA expression levels of corresponding genes. These results indicated that genetic variants in the NLRP3 imflammasome pathway gene-sets might be predictors of NSCLC survival, but the molecular mechanisms underlying the observed associations warrant further investigations.
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    Genetic variants of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway genes and risk of pancreatic cancer.
    (Molecular carcinogenesis, 2020-05-05) Liu, Xiaowen; Qian, Danwen; Liu, Hongliang; Abbruzzese, James L; Luo, Sheng; Walsh, Kyle M; Wei, Qingyi
    Because the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway is involved in development and progression of pancreatic cancer, we investigated associations between genetic variants of the PPAR pathway genes and pancreatic cancer risk by using three published genome-wide association study datasets including 8477 cases and 6946 controls of European ancestry. Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis was also performed for correlations between genotypes of the identified genetic variants and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels of their genes by using available databases of the 1000 Genomes, TCGA, and GTEx projects. In the single-locus logistic regression analysis, we identified 1141 out of 17 532 significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 112 PPAR pathway genes. Further multivariate logistic regression analysis identified three independent, potentially functional loci (rs12947620 in MED1, rs11079651 in PRKCA, and rs34367566 in PRKCB) for pancreatic cancer risk (odds ratio [OR] = 1.11, 95% confidence interval [CI], [1.06-1.17], P = 5.46 × 10-5 ; OR = 1.10, 95% CI, [1.04-1.15], P = 1.99 × 10-4 ; and OR = 1.09, 95% CI, [1.04-1.14], P = 3.16 × 10-4 , respectively) among 65 SNPs that passed multiple comparison correction by false discovery rate (< 0.2). When risk genotypes of these three SNPs were combined, carriers with 2 to 3 unfavorable genotypes (NUGs) had a higher risk of pancreatic cancer than those with 0 to 1 NUGs. The eQTL analysis showed that rs34367566 A>AG was associated with decreased expression levels of PRKCB mRNA in 373 lymphoblastoid cell lines. Our findings indicate that genetic variants of the PPAR pathway genes, particularly MED1, PRKCA, and PRKCB, may contribute to susceptibility to pancreatic cancer.
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    Multi-ethnic GWAS and meta-analysis of sleep quality identify MPP6 as a novel gene that functions in sleep center neurons.
    (Sleep, 2020-10-09) Khoury, Samar; Wang, Qiao-Ping; Parisien, Marc; Gris, Pavel; Bortsov, Andrey V; Linnstaedt, Sarah D; McLean, Samuel A; Tungate, Andrew S; Sofer, Tamar; Lee, Jiwon; Louie, Tin; Redline, Susan; Kaunisto, Mari Anneli; Kalso, Eija A; Munter, Hans Markus; Nackley, Andrea G; Slade, Gary D; Smith, Shad B; Zaykin, Dmitri V; Fillingim, Roger B; Ohrbach, Richard; Greenspan, Joel D; Maixner, William; Neely, G Gregory; Diatchenko, Luda
    Poor sleep quality can have harmful health consequences. Although many aspects of sleep are heritable, the understandings of genetic factors involved in its physiology remain limited. Here, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in a multi-ethnic discovery cohort (n=2,868) and found two novel genome-wide loci on chromosomes 2 and 7 associated with global sleep quality. A meta-analysis in 12 independent cohorts (100,000 individuals) replicated the association on chromosome 7 between NPY and MPP6. While NPY is an important sleep gene, we tested for an independent functional role of MPP6. Expression data showed an association of this locus with both NPY and MPP6 mRNA levels in brain tissues. Moreover, knockdown of an orthologue of MPP6 in Drosophila melanogaster sleep center neurons resulted in decreased sleep duration. With convergent evidence, we describe a new locus impacting human variability in sleep quality through known NPY and novel MPP6 sleep genes.
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    Novel genetic variants in KIF16B and NEDD4L in the endosome-related genes are associated with non-small cell lung cancer survival.
    (International journal of cancer, 2019-10-16) Yang, Sen; Tang, Dongfang; Zhao, Yu C; Liu, Hongliang; Luo, Sheng; Stinchcombe, Thomas E; Glass, Carolyn; Su, Li; Shen, Sipeng; Christiani, David C; Wang, Qiming; Wei, Qingyi
    The endosome is a membrane-bound organ inside most eukaryotic cells, playing an important role in adaptive immunity by delivering endocytosed antigens to both MHC class I and II pathways. Here, by analyzing two published genome-wide association studies (GWASs), we evaluated associations between genetic variants in the endosome-related gene-set and survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The discovery included 44,112 (3,478 genotyped and 40,634 imputed) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 220 genes in a single locus analysis for their associations with survival of 1,185 NSCLC patients from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial. After validation of the 821 survival-associated significant SNPs in additional 984 NSCLC patients from the Harvard Lung Cancer Susceptibility study, 14 SNPs remained significant. The final multivariate stepwise Cox proportional hazards regression model in the PLCO datasets identified three potentially functional and independent SNPs (KIF16B rs1555195 C>T, NEDD4L rs11660748 A>G and rs73440898 A>G) with an adjusted hazards ratio (HR) of 0.86 [95% confidence interval (CI)=0.79-0.94, P=0.0007], 1.31 (1.16-1.47, P=6.0×10-5 ) and 1.27 (1.12-1.44, P=0.0001) for overall survival (OS), respectively. Combined analysis of the adverse genotypes of these three SNPs revealed a trend in the genotype-survival association (Ptrend <0.0001 for OS and Ptrend <0.0001 for disease-specific survival). Furthermore, the survival-associated KIF16B rs1555195T allele was significantly associated with decreased mRNA expression levels of KIF16B in both lung tissues and blood cells. Therefore, genetic variants of the endosome-related genes may be biomarker for NSCLC survival, possibly through modulating the expression of corresponding genes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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    Potentially functional genetic variants in the complement-related immunity gene-set are associated with non-small cell lung cancer survival.
    (International journal of cancer, 2019-04) Qian, Danwen; Liu, Hongliang; Wang, Xiaomeng; Ge, Jie; Luo, Sheng; Patz, Edward F; Moorman, Patricia G; Su, Li; Shen, Sipeng; Christiani, David C; Wei, Qingyi
    The complement system plays an important role in the innate and adaptive immunity, complement components mediate tumor cytolysis of antibody-based immunotherapy, and complement activation in the tumor microenvironment may promote tumor progression or inhibition, depending on the mechanism of action. In the present study, we conducted a two-phase analysis of two independently published genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for associations between genetic variants in a complement-related immunity gene-set and overall survival of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The GWAS dataset from Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial was used as the discovery, and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression with false-positive report probability for multiple test corrections were performed to evaluate associations between 14,699 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 111 genes and survival of 1,185 NSCLC patients. The identified significant SNPs in a single-locus analysis were further validated with 984 NSCLC patients in the GWAS dataset from the Harvard Lung Cancer Susceptibility (HLCS) Study. The results showed that two independent, potentially functional SNPs in two genes (VWF rs73049469 and ITGB2 rs3788142) were significantly associated with NSCLC survival, with a combined hazards ratio (HR) of 1.22 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.07-1.40, P = 0.002] and 1.16 (1.07-1.27, 6.45 × 10-4 ), respectively. Finally, we performed expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis and found that survival-associated genotypes of VWF rs73049469 were also significantly associated with mRNA expression levels of the gene. These results indicated that genetic variants of the complement-related immunity genes might be predictors of NSCLC survival, particularly for the short-term survival, possibly by modulating the expression of genes involved in the host immunity.
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