A method to decipher pleiotropy by detecting underlying heterogeneity driven by hidden subgroups applied to autoimmune and neuropsychiatric diseases

Citation:

Han B#, Pouget JG#, Slowikowski K, Stahl E, Lee CH, Diogo D, Hu X, Park YR, Kim E, Gregersen PK, Dahlqvist SR, Worthington J, Martin J, Eyre S, Klareskog L, Huizinga T, Chen W-M, Onengut-Gumuscu S, Rich SS, of the Consortium MDDWGPG, Wray NR, Raychaudhuri S. A method to decipher pleiotropy by detecting underlying heterogeneity driven by hidden subgroups applied to autoimmune and neuropsychiatric diseases [Internet]. Nat Genet 2016;48(7):803-10.

Date Published:

2016 Jul

Abstract:

There is growing evidence of shared risk alleles for complex traits (pleiotropy), including autoimmune and neuropsychiatric diseases. This might be due to sharing among all individuals (whole-group pleiotropy) or a subset of individuals in a genetically heterogeneous cohort (subgroup heterogeneity). Here we describe the use of a well-powered statistic, BUHMBOX, to distinguish between those two situations using genotype data. We observed a shared genetic basis for 11 autoimmune diseases and type 1 diabetes (T1D; P < 1 × 10(-4)) and for 11 autoimmune diseases and rheumatoid arthritis (RA; P < 1 × 10(-3)). This sharing was not explained by subgroup heterogeneity (corrected PBUHMBOX > 0.2; 6,670 T1D cases and 7,279 RA cases). Genetic sharing between seronegative and seropostive RA (P < 1 × 10(-9)) had significant evidence of subgroup heterogeneity, suggesting a subgroup of seropositive-like cases within seronegative cases (PBUHMBOX = 0.008; 2,406 seronegative RA cases). We also observed a shared genetic basis for major depressive disorder (MDD) and schizophrenia (P < 1 × 10(-4)) that was not explained by subgroup heterogeneity (PBUHMBOX = 0.28; 9,238 MDD cases).

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Last updated on 04/23/2020