Analysis of immune-related loci identifies 48 new susceptibility variants for multiple sclerosis

• Published in: Nature genetics Vol. 45; no. 11; pp. 1353 - 1360
• Main Authors: Beecham, Ashley H, Patsopoulos, Nikolaos A, Xifara, Dionysia K, Davis, Mary F, Kemppinen, Anu, Cotsapas, Chris, Shah, Tejas S, Spencer, Chris, Booth, David, Goris, An, Oturai, Annette, Saarela, Janna, Fontaine, Bertrand, Hemmer, Bernhard, Martin, Claes, Zipp, Frauke, D'Alfonso, Sandra, Martinelli-Boneschi, Filippo, Taylor, Bruce, Harbo, Hanne F, Kockum, Ingrid, Hillert, Jan, Olsson, Tomas, Ban, Maria, Oksenberg, Jorge R, Hintzen, Rogier, Barcellos, Lisa F, Agliardi, Cristina, Alfredsson, Lars, Alizadeh, Mehdi, Anderson, Carl, Andrews, Robert, Søndergaard, Helle Bach, Baker, Amie, Band, Gavin, Baranzini, Sergio E, Barizzone, Nadia, Barrett, Jeffrey, Bellenguez, Céline, Bergamaschi, Laura, Bernardinelli, Luisa, Berthele, Achim, Biberacher, Viola, Binder, Thomas M C, Blackburn, Hannah, Bomfim, Izaura L, Brambilla, Paola, Broadley, Simon, Brochet, Bruno, Brundin, Lou, Buck, Dorothea, Butzkueven, Helmut, Caillier, Stacy J, Camu, William, Carpentier, Wassila, Cavalla, Paola, Celius, Elisabeth G, Coman, Irène, Comi, Giancarlo, Corrado, Lucia, Cosemans, Leentje, Cournu-Rebeix, Isabelle, Cree, Bruce A C, Cusi, Daniele, Damotte, Vincent, Defer, Gilles, Delgado, Silvia R, Deloukas, Panos, di Sapio, Alessia, Dilthey, Alexander T, Donnelly, Peter, Dubois, Bénédicte, Duddy, Martin, Edkins, Sarah, Elovaara, Irina, Esposito, Federica, Evangelou, Nikos, Fiddes, Barnaby, Field, Judith, Franke, Andre, Freeman, Colin, Frohlich, Irene Y, Galimberti, Daniela, Gieger, Christian, Gourraud, Pierre-Antoine, Graetz, Christiane, Graham, Andrew, Grummel, Verena, Guaschino, Clara, Hadjixenofontos, Athena, Hakonarson, Hakon, Halfpenny, Christopher, Hall, Gillian, Hall, Per, Hamsten, Anders, Harley, James, Harrower, Timothy, Hawkins, Clive, Hellenthal, Garrett, Hillier, Charles
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.11.2013; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/208/205/2138; 631/250/248; 692/699/249/1313/1666; 692/699/375/1666; Agriculture; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Autoimmune diseases; Biomedicine; Cancer Research; Chromosome Mapping; Clinical Medicine; Confidence intervals; Disease; European Continental Ancestry Group; Gene expression; Gene Frequency; Gene Function; Genetic aspects; Genetic Loci; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetic susceptibility; Genetic Variation; genetics; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Genotype; Human Genetics; Human health and pathology; Humans; Identification and classification; immunology; Klinisk medicin; letter; Life Sciences; Medical and Health Sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Meta-analysis; Methods; Multiple Sclerosis; Multiple Sclerosis - genetics; Multiple Sclerosis - immunology; Neurologi; Neurology; Neurosciences; Neurovetenskaper; Polymorphism; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Quality control; Single Nucleotide; Stratigraphy; TECHNOLOGY; TEKNIKVETENSKAP; Testing; White People - genetics
• ISSN: 1061-4036; 1546-1718; 1546-1718
• DOI: 10.1038/ng.2770

The International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium reports the discovery of 48 new susceptibility variants for multiple sclerosis through targeted follow-up of immune-related loci. They also report fine mapping of association signals at established susceptibility loci and provide insights into the immune system processes underlying this disease. Using the ImmunoChip custom genotyping array, we analyzed 14,498 subjects with multiple sclerosis and 24,091 healthy controls for 161,311 autosomal variants and identified 135 potentially associated regions ( P < 1.0 × 10 −4 ). In a replication phase, we combined these data with previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from an independent 14,802 subjects with multiple sclerosis and 26,703 healthy controls. In these 80,094 individuals of European ancestry, we identified 48 new susceptibility variants ( P < 5.0 × 10 −8 ), 3 of which we found after conditioning on previously identified variants. Thus, there are now 110 established multiple sclerosis risk variants at 103 discrete loci outside of the major histocompatibility complex. With high-resolution Bayesian fine mapping, we identified five regions where one variant accounted for more than 50% of the posterior probability of association. This study enhances the catalog of multiple sclerosis risk variants and illustrates the value of fine mapping in the resolution of GWAS signals.