Genome-wide association meta-analysis in Chinese and European individuals identifies ten new loci associated with systemic lupus erythematosus

• Published in: Nature genetics Vol. 48; no. 8; pp. 940 - 946
• Main Authors: Morris, David L, Sheng, Yujun, Zhang, Yan, Wang, Yong-Fei, Zhu, Zhengwei, Tombleson, Philip, Chen, Lingyan, Cunninghame Graham, Deborah S, Bentham, James, Roberts, Amy L, Chen, Ruoyan, Zuo, Xianbo, Wang, Tingyou, Wen, Leilei, Yang, Chao, Liu, Lu, Yang, Lulu, Li, Feng, Huang, Yuanbo, Yin, Xianyong, Yang, Sen, Rönnblom, Lars, Fürnrohr, Barbara G, Voll, Reinhard E, Schett, Georg, Costedoat–Chalumeau, Nathalie, Gaffney, Patrick M, Lau, Yu Lung, Zhang, Xuejun, Yang, Wanling, Cui, Yong, Vyse, Timothy J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.08.2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 38/39; 45/43; 631/208/205/2138; 692/699/249/1313/1613; Agriculture; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Asian People - genetics; Autoimmune diseases; Biomedicine; Cancer Research; Case-Control Studies; Gene expression; Gene Function; Genetic aspects; Genetic Loci - genetics; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genome-wide association studies; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Health risk assessment; Human Genetics; Humans; Identification and classification; letter; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic - genetics; Lymphocytes; Medical Science; Medicinsk vetenskap; Meta-analysis; Methods; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Population; Quality control; Quantitative trait loci; Risk factors; Statistical analysis; Studies; Systemic lupus erythematosus; White People - genetics; Hong Kong China; China
• ISSN: 1061-4036; 1546-1718; 1546-1718
• DOI: 10.1038/ng.3603

Timothy Vyse, Yong Cui, Wanling Yang and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) including European and Chinese individuals. They identify ten new loci associated with SLE and find evidence for increased genetic risk of disease among individuals of non-European ancestry. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE; OMIM 152700) is a genetically complex autoimmune disease. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified more than 50 loci as robustly associated with the disease in single ancestries, but genome-wide transancestral studies have not been conducted. We combined three GWAS data sets from Chinese (1,659 cases and 3,398 controls) and European (4,036 cases and 6,959 controls) populations. A meta-analysis of these studies showed that over half of the published SLE genetic associations are present in both populations. A replication study in Chinese (3,043 cases and 5,074 controls) and European (2,643 cases and 9,032 controls) subjects found ten previously unreported SLE loci. Our study provides further evidence that the majority of genetic risk polymorphisms for SLE are contained within the same regions across both populations. Furthermore, a comparison of risk allele frequencies and genetic risk scores suggested that the increased prevalence of SLE in non-Europeans (including Asians) has a genetic basis.