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Common variants at MS4A4/MS4A6E, CD2AP, CD33 and EPHA1 are associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The Alzheimer Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) performed a genome-wide association study of late-onset Alzheimer disease using a three-stage design consisting of a discovery stage (stage 1) and two replication stages (stages 2 and 3). Both joint analysis and meta-analysis approaches were used. We obtained genome-wide significant results at MS4A4A (rs4938933; stages 1 and 2, meta-analysis P (PM) = 1.7 × 10−9, joint analysis P (PJ) = 1.7 × 10−9; stages 1, 2 and 3, PM = 8.2 × 10−12), CD2AP (rs9349407; stages 1, 2 and 3, PM = 8.6 × 10−9), EPHA1 (rs11767557; stages 1, 2 and 3, PM = 6.0 × 10−10) and CD33 (rs3865444; stages 1, 2 and 3, PM = 1.6 × 10−9). We also replicated previous associations at CR1 (rs6701713; PM = 4.6 × 10−10, PJ = 5.2 × 10−11), CLU (rs1532278; PM = 8.3 × 10−8, PJ = 1.9 × 10−8), BIN1 (rs7561528; PM = 4.0 × 10−14, PJ = 5.2 × 10−14) and PICALM (rs561655; PM = 7.0 × 10−11, PJ = 1.0 × 10−10), but not at EXOC3L2, to late-onset Alzheimer's disease susceptibility1,2,3.

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Figure 1: Regional association plots from the three-stage meta-analysis with LOAD.

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Acknowledgements

The National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging (NIH-NIA) supported this work through the following grants: ADGC, U01 AG032984, RC2 AG036528; NACC, U01 AG016976; NCRAD, U24 AG021886; NIA LOAD, U24 AG026395, U24 AG026390; Boston University, P30 AG013846, R01 HG02213, K24 AG027841, U01 AG10483, R01 CA129769, R01 MH080295, R01 AG009029, R01 AG017173, R01 AG025259; Columbia University, P50 AG008702, R37 AG015473; Duke University, P30 AG028377; Emory University, AG025688; Indiana University, P30 AG10133; Johns Hopkins University, P50 AG005146, R01 AG020688; Massachusetts General Hospital, P50 AG005134; Mayo Clinic, P50 AG016574; Mount Sinai School of Medicine, P50 AG005138, P01 AG002219; New York University, P30 AG08051, MO1RR00096, and UL1 RR029893; Northwestern University, P30 AG013854; Oregon Health & Science University, P30 AG008017, R01 AG026916; Rush University, P30 AG010161, R01 AG019085, R01 AG15819, R01 AG17917, R01 AG30146; University of Alabama at Birmingham, P50 AG016582, UL1RR02777; University of Arizona/TGEN, P30 AG019610, R01 AG031581, R01 NS059873; University of California, Davis, P30 AG010129; University of California, Irvine, P50 AG016573, P50, P50 AG016575, P50 AG016576, P50 AG016577; University of California, Los Angeles, P50 AG016570; University of California, San Diego, P50 AG005131; University of California, San Francisco, P50 AG023501, P01 AG019724; University of Kentucky, P30 AG028383; University of Michigan, P50 AG008671; University of Pennsylvania, P30 AG010124; University of Pittsburgh, P50 AG005133, AG030653; University of Southern California, P50 AG005142; University of Texas Southwestern, P30 AG012300; University of Miami, R01 AG027944, AG010491, AG027944, AG021547, AG019757; University of Washington, P50 AG005136, UO1 AG06781, UO1 HG004610; Vanderbilt University, R01 AG019085; and Washington University, P50 AG005681, P01 AG03991. ADNI Funding for ADNI is through the Northern California Institute for Research and Education by grants from Abbott, AstraZeneca AB, Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai Global Clinical Development, Elan Corporation, Genentech, GE Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Innogenetics, Johnson and Johnson, Eli Lilly and Co., Medpace, Inc., Merck and Co., Inc., Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc., F. Hoffman-La Roche, Schering-Plough, Synarc, Inc., Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, the Dana Foundation, and by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and NIA grants U01 AG024904, RC2 AG036535, K01 AG030514. We thank C. Phelps, M. Morrison-Bogorad and M. Miller from NIA who are ex-officio ADGC members. Support was also from the Alzheimer's Association (LAF, IIRG-08-89720; MP-V, IIRG-05-14147) and the Veterans Affairs Administration. P.S.-H. is supported by Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Canadian Institute of Health Research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Sample collection, phenotyping and data management: J.D. Buxbaum, G.P.J., P.K.C., E.B.L., T.D.B., B.F.B., N.R.G.-R., P.L.D., D.E., J.A. Schneider, M.M.C., N.E.-T., S.G.Y., C.C., J.S.K.K., P.N., P.K., J.H., M.J.H., A.J.M., M.M.B., F.Y.D., C.T.B., R.C.G., E.R., P.S.G.-H., S.E.A., R.B., T.B., E.H.B., J.D. Bowen, A.B., J.R.B., N.J.C., C.S.C., S.L.C., H.C.C., D.G.C., J.C., C.W.C., J.L.C., C.D., S.T.D., R.D.-A., M.D., D.W.D., W.G.E., K.M.F., K.B.F., M.R.F., S.F., M.P.F., D.R.G., M. Ganguli, M. Gearing, D.H.G., B. Ghetti, J.R.G., S.G., B. Giordani, J.D.G., J.H.G., R.L.H., L.E.H., E.H., L.S.H., C.M.H., B.T.H., G.A.J., L.-W.J., N.J., J.K., A.K., J.A.K., R.K., E.H.K., N.W.K., J.J.L., A.I.L., A.P.L., O.L.L., W.J.M., D.C. Marson, F.M., D.C. Mash, E.M., W.C.M., S.M.M., A.N.M., A.C.M., M.M., B.L.M., C.A.M., J.W.M., J.E.P., D.P.P., E.P., R.C.P., W.W.P., J.F.Q., M.R., B.R., J.M.R., E.D.R., R.N.R., M.S., L.S.S., W.S., M.L.S., M.A.S., C.D.S., J.A. Sonnen, S.S., R.A.S., R.E.T., J.Q.T., J.C.T., V.M.V., H.V.V., J.P.V., S.W., K.A.W.-B., J.W., R.L.W., L.B.C., B.A.D., D. Beekly, M.I.K., A.J.S., E.M.R., D.A.B., A.M.G., W.A.K., T.M.F., J.L.H., R.M., M.A.P.-V., L.A.F.

Study management and coordination: L.B.C., D. Beekly, D.A.B., J.C.M., T.J.M., A.M.G., D. Blacker, D.W.T., H.H., W.A.K., T.M.F., J.L.H., R.M., M.A.P.-V., L.A.F., G.D.S.

Statistical methods and analysis: A.C.N., G.J., G.W.B., L.-S.W., B.N.V., J.B., P.J.G., R.M.C., R.A.R., M.A.S., K.L.L., E.R.M., J.L.H., M.A.P.-V., L.A.F.

Interpretation of results: A.C.N., G.J., G.W.B., L.-S.W., B.N.V., J.B., P.J.G., R.A.R., M.A.S., K.L.L., E.R.M., M.I.K., A.J.S., E.M.R., D.A.B., J.C.M., T.J.M., A.M.G., D. Blacker, D.W.T., H.H., W.A.K., T.M.F., J.L.H., R.M., M.A.P.-V., L.A.F., G.D.S.

Manuscript writing group: A.C.N., G.J., G.W.B., L.-S.W., B.N.V., J.B., P.J.G., J.L.H., R.M., M.A.P.-V., L.A.F., G.D.S.

Study design: D.A.B., J.C.M., T.J.M., A.M.G., D. Blacker, D.W.T., H.H., W.A.K., T.M.F., J.L.H., R.M., M.A.P.-V., L.A.F., G.D.S.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerard D Schellenberg.

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Competing interests

T.D.B. received licensing fees from and is on the speaker's bureau of Athena Diagnostics, Inc. M.R.F. receives research funding from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Danone Research, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, OctaPharma AG, Pfizer Inc. and Sonexa Therapeutics, Inc; receives honoraria as scientific consultant from Accera, Inc., Astellas Pharma US Inc., Baxter, Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai Medical Research, Inc., GE Healthcare, Medavante, Medivation, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., Pfizer, Inc., Prana Biotechnology Ltd., QR Pharma., Inc., the Sanofi-aventis Group and Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd.; and is speaker for Eisai Medical Research, Inc., Forest Laboratories, Pfizer Inc. and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. A.M.G. has research funding from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Genentech and has received remuneration for giving talks at Pfizer and Genentech. R.C.P. is on the Safety Monitoring Committee of Pfizer, Inc. (Wyeth) and a consultant to the Safety Monitoring Committee at Janssen Alzheimer's Immunotherapy Program (Elan), to Elan Pharmaceuticals, and to GE Healthcare. R.E.T. is a consultant to Eisai, Japan in the area of Alzheimer's genetics and a shareholder in and consultant to Pathway Genomics, Inc, San Diego, California, USA.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Tables 1–4 and 8 and 9, Supplementary Figures 1 and 2 and Supplementary Note (PDF 885 kb)

Supplementary Table 5

Association Results for SNPs with P<10−4 in the Stage 1 Discovery Meta-Analysis and Joint Analysis (XLS 271 kb)

Supplementary Table 6

Functional SNPs Near Regions with Associations of P<10−4 in the Stage 1 Discovery Meta-analysis and Joint Analysis (XLS 1063 kb)

Supplementary Table 7

Association Results from ADGC Discovery (Stage 1) Analyses for SNPs Highlighted by Previous GWAS Studies (XLS 84 kb)

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Naj, A., Jun, G., Beecham, G. et al. Common variants at MS4A4/MS4A6E, CD2AP, CD33 and EPHA1 are associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Nat Genet 43, 436–441 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.801

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