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Genome Analyses of >200,000 Individuals Identify 58 Loci for Chronic Inflammation and Highlight Pathways that Link Inflammation and Complex Disorders

  • CHARGE Inflammation Working Group
  • , Lifelines Cohort Study
  • Department of Epidemiology
  • University of Groningen
  • Erasmus University Rotterdam
  • Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
  • University of Tartu
  • University of Lorraine
  • University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
  • National Institutes of Health
  • Brigham and Women’s Hospital
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Karolinska Institutet
  • University of Split
  • Boston University
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  • Amsterdam UMC
  • University of Amsterdam
  • University of Lausanne
  • Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
  • National Research Council of Italy
  • Leiden University
  • King's College London
  • NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust
  • Research Institute of the Santa Creu i Sant Pau Hospital
  • University of Queensland
  • University of Bristol
  • University of Cambridge
  • University of Greifswald
  • German Centre for Cardiovascular Research
  • Icelandic Heart Association
  • University of Iceland
  • Peking University
  • Harvard University
  • Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health
  • German Center for Diabetes Research
  • Washington University St. Louis
  • Wake Forest University
  • Heidelberg University 
  • VU University Medical Center
  • University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein
  • University of Helsinki
  • Fimlab Laboratories
  • Tampere University
  • Hunter Medical Research Institute, Australia
  • University of Newcastle
  • Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing
  • National Institute for Health and Welfare
  • Statens Serum Institut
  • Folkhalsan
  • University of Edinburgh
  • Mahidol University
  • University of Virginia
  • The Lundquist Institute
  • University of Verona
  • J. Craig Venter Institute
  • Translational Genomics Research Institute
  • EURAC Research
  • Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
  • University of Oxford
  • University of Gothenburg
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Imperial College London
  • London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • University of Western Australia
  • Area Science Park
  • CNRS UMR 8199
  • Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
  • Medical University of Graz
  • Rush University Medical Center
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  • Novo Nordisk Foundation
  • University of Copenhagen
  • Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam
  • University of Glasgow
  • Inc.
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • IRCCS Ospedale Infantile Burlo Garofolo - Trieste
  • Institute for Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
  • Baylor College of Medicine
  • Houston Methodist
  • University of Oulu
  • University of Medical Sciences Poznan
  • Stockholm University
  • Radboud University Nijmegen
  • Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
  • Helsinki University Hospital
  • Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
  • IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed - Pozzilli (IS)
  • University of California at San Diego
  • Tulane University
  • Uppsala University
  • Case Western Reserve University
  • Sahlgrenska University Hospital
  • PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA
  • University of Trieste
  • Renal and Cardiovascular Epidemiology
  • University of Glasgow
  • University of Turku
  • Hunter New England Health
  • Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa
  • Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS
  • Broad Institute
  • Lund University
  • Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
  • Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
  • University College Cork
  • Technical University of Munich
  • Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy)
  • St. George's University of London
  • St. George’s Hospital
  • Brunel University London
  • Durrer Center for Cardiogenetic Research
  • Interuniversity Cardiology Institute of the Netherlands
  • Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
  • SYNLAB International GmbH
  • Stanford University
  • UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland
  • Verona University Hospital
  • University of Adelaide
  • General Central Hospital
  • University of Lübeck
  • Azienda Sanitaria Firenze
  • University of Kentucky
  • Ulm University
  • University of Liverpool
  • University of Washington
  • Kaiser Permanente
  • University of Vermont
  • University of Minnesota Twin Cities
  • University of Bern
  • National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s and Boston University’s Framingham Heart Study

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a sensitive biomarker of chronic low-grade inflammation and is associated with multiple complex diseases. The genetic determinants of chronic inflammation remain largely unknown, and the causal role of CRP in several clinical outcomes is debated. We performed two genome-wide association studies (GWASs), on HapMap and 1000 Genomes imputed data, of circulating amounts of CRP by using data from 88 studies comprising 204,402 European individuals. Additionally, we performed in silico functional analyses and Mendelian randomization analyses with several clinical outcomes. The GWAS meta-analyses of CRP revealed 58 distinct genetic loci (p < 5 × 10−8). After adjustment for body mass index in the regression analysis, the associations at all except three loci remained. The lead variants at the distinct loci explained up to 7.0% of the variance in circulating amounts of CRP. We identified 66 gene sets that were organized in two substantially correlated clusters, one mainly composed of immune pathways and the other characterized by metabolic pathways in the liver. Mendelian randomization analyses revealed a causal protective effect of CRP on schizophrenia and a risk-increasing effect on bipolar disorder. Our findings provide further insights into the biology of inflammation and could lead to interventions for treating inflammation and its clinical consequences.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)691-706
Number of pages16
JournalAmerican Journal of Human Genetics
Volume103
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • C-reactive protein
  • DEPICT
  • Mendelian randomization
  • coronary artery disease
  • genome-wide association study
  • inflammation
  • inflammatory disorders
  • schizophrenia
  • system biology

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