Genome‐wide association study identifies 7q11.22 and 7q36.3 associated with noise‐induced hearing loss among Chinese population

• Published in: Journal of cellular and molecular medicine Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 411 - 420
• Main Authors: Niu, Yuguang, Xie, Chengyong, Du, Zhenhua, Zeng, Jifeng, Chen, Hongxia, Jin, Liang, Zhang, Qing, Yu, Huiying, Wang, Yahui, Ping, Jie, Yang, Chenning, Liu, Xinyi, Li, Yuanfeng, Zhou, Gangqiao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Age; AUTS2; Chromosome 7; Ears & hearing; ErbB protein; Genes; Genome-wide association studies; Genomes; genome‐wide association study; Hearing loss; Noise; noise‐induced hearing loss; Original; Population; PTPRN2; Quality of life; Quantitative trait loci; Regression analysis; WDR60; Wnt protein; China; noise-induced hearing loss; PTPRN2; AUTS2; WDR60; genome-wide association study
• ISSN: 1582-1838; 1582-4934
• DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.16094

Noise‐induced hearing loss (NIHL) seriously affects the life quality of humans and causes huge economic losses to society. To identify novel genetic loci involved in NIHL, we conducted a genome‐wide association study (GWAS) for this symptom in Chinese populations. GWAS scan was performed in 89 NIHL subjects (cases) and 209 subjects with normal hearing who have been exposed to a similar noise environment (controls), followed by a replication study consisting of 53 cases and 360 controls. We identified that four candidate pathways were nominally significantly associated with NIHL, including the Erbb, Wnt, hedgehog and intraflagellar transport pathways. In addition, two novel index single‐nucleotide polymorphisms, rs35075890 in the intron of AUTS2 gene at 7q11.22 (combined P = 1.3 × 10−6) and rs10081191 in the intron of PTPRN2 gene at 7q36.3 (combined P = 2.1 × 10−6), were significantly associated with NIHL. Furthermore, the expression quantitative trait loci analyses revealed that in brain tissues, the genotypes of rs35075890 are significantly associated with the expression levels of AUTS2, and the genotypes of rs10081191 are significantly associated with the expressions of PTPRN2 and WDR60. In conclusion, our findings highlight two novel loci at 7q11.22 and 7q36.3 conferring susceptibility to NIHL.