Project description:This study builds the first translational model of biological sensitivity to context. In order to determine gene expression patterns that underlie environmental responsivity, we conduct RNA sequencing of ventral dentate gyrus in C57BL6/J mice exposed to two distinctly divergent contexts: environmental enrichment or chronic social defeat stress. Differential expression analysis revealed 18 genes that were commonly regulated in response to these contexts compared to control and were thus considered environmentally responsive irrespective of the valance of the environment. Using the human orthologs, we build a polygenic score of environmental responsivity (ER-ePRS). We then tested whether this ER-ePRS moderated the relationship between the quality of the prevailing environment and anxiety-like or depression problems in four culturally distinctive human cohorts. Results reveal that the molecular underpinnings responsible for environmental responsivity in mice predict a greater propensity to develop psychopathological symptoms in humans in a context and sex dependent manner.
Project description:Drug-Induced-Liver-Injury (DILI) is a leading cause of termination in drug development programs and removal of drugs from the market because of inability to identify potential patients prior to clinical testing. Here, we approached a polygenic risk score (PRS) based strategy by aggregating effects of numerous genome-wide loci identified from previous large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The PRS predicted the susceptibility to DILI in patients in a clinical trial, and in multi-donor derived primary hepatocytes and stem cell-derived organoids. Pathway analysis highlighted processes previously implicated in DILI, including unfolded protein responses and oxidative stress alleviated by a potent antioxidant. Furthermore, hepatocytic transcriptomic signatures related to polygenic score identified potential drugs with clinical DILI evidence through in silico 941 compound screening. This genetic-, cellular-, organoid- and human-scale evidence underscored the polygenic architectures underlying DILI vulnerability at the level of hepatocytes, thus facilitating future mechanistic studies. Moreover, the proposed “polygenicity-in-a-dish” strategy potentially will contribute to prospective designs of safer, more efficient, and robust clinical trials.
Project description:The risk for psychiatric disorders is strongly affected by environmental stressors. The underlying mechanisms are inevitably multifactorial still not fully understood. Glucocorticoids (GCs), which are prominent stress mediators that affect transcriptional activity and brain morphology, are implicated in the pathophysiology of multiple forms of psychopathology. The challenge is that of establishing the relevance of GC-related transcriptional effects for stress-related psychopathology in humans. We addressed this issue by generating gene expression data from hippocampal dentate gyrus from macaques and rats to identify clusters of co-expressed genes sensitive to GC exposure as the basis for a biologically-informed polygenic risk score (ePRS) to investigate neuropsychiatric outcomes in humans exposed to early life adversity. We used RNA-sequencing data to identify a cluster of GC-responsive genes co-expressed in the posterior dentate gyrus (pDG) of female Cynomologus monkeys and preserved in the rat model with the homologous region (the dorsal DG). In total 11395 SNPs derived from these genes (507 genes) were used to create an ePRS to explore the interaction with early life adversity on psychiatric phenotypes in human cohorts using the UK Biobank Resource and ALSPAC data sets. The biologically-informed ePRS significantly predicted psychotic behavior in adversity-exposed females as well as variation in brain volume. These findings reveal that GC exposure influences a specific group of genes in pDG, largely enriched for transcription processes and pathways related to development activity. Variations in the expression of this gene network can be used in a translational manner to predict risk for neuropsychiatric conditions and brain volume alterations after early stress exposure. These results highlight the importance of hippocampal GC-related transcriptional activity as a mediator for the effects of early life adversity on mental health outcomes.
Project description:Genetic association studies provide evidence for a substantial polygenic component to schizophrenia, although the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the disorder remain largely undefined. Building on recent studies supporting a role for developmentally regulated epigenetic variation in the molecular etiology of schizophrenia, this study aimed to identify epigenetic variation associated with both a diagnosis of schizophrenia and elevated polygenic risk burden for the disease across multiple brain regions. Genome-wide DNA methylation was quantified in 262 post-mortem brain samples, representing tissue from four brain regions (prefrontal cortex, striatum, hippocampus and cerebellum) from 41 schizophrenia patients and 47 controls. We identified multiple disease-associated and polygenic risk score-associated differentially methylated positions and regions, many residing in the vicinity of genes previously implicated in schizophrenia including NCAM1, SYNPO, GBP4, PRDM9, GADD45B and DISC1. Our study represents the first analysis of epigenetic variation associated with schizophrenia across multiple brain regions and highlights the utility of polygenic risk scores for identifying molecular pathways associated with etiological variation in complex disease.
Project description:Genetic association studies provide evidence for a substantial polygenic component to schizophrenia, although the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the disorder remain largely undefined. Building on recent studies supporting a role for developmentally regulated epigenetic variation in the molecular etiology of schizophrenia, this study aimed to identify epigenetic variation associated with both a diagnosis of schizophrenia and elevated polygenic risk burden for the disease across multiple brain regions. Genome-wide DNA methylation was quantified in 262 post-mortem brain samples, representing tissue from four brain regions (prefrontal cortex, striatum, hippocampus and cerebellum) from 41 schizophrenia patients and 47 controls. We identified multiple disease-associated and polygenic risk score-associated differentially methylated positions and regions, many residing in the vicinity of genes previously implicated in schizophrenia including NCAM1, SYNPO, GBP4, PRDM9, GADD45B and DISC1. Our study represents the first analysis of epigenetic variation associated with schizophrenia across multiple brain regions and highlights the utility of polygenic risk scores for identifying molecular pathways associated with etiological variation in complex disease.
Project description:Genetic association studies provide evidence for a substantial polygenic component to schizophrenia, although the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the disorder remain largely undefined. Building on recent studies supporting a role for developmentally regulated epigenetic variation in the molecular etiology of schizophrenia, this study aimed to identify epigenetic variation associated with both a diagnosis of schizophrenia and elevated polygenic risk burden for the disease across multiple brain regions. Genome-wide DNA methylation was quantified in 262 post-mortem brain samples, representing tissue from four brain regions (prefrontal cortex, striatum, hippocampus and cerebellum) from 41 schizophrenia patients and 47 controls. We identified multiple disease-associated and polygenic risk score-associated differentially methylated positions and regions, many residing in the vicinity of genes previously implicated in schizophrenia including NCAM1, SYNPO, GBP4, PRDM9, GADD45B and DISC1. Our study represents the first analysis of epigenetic variation associated with schizophrenia across multiple brain regions and highlights the utility of polygenic risk scores for identifying molecular pathways associated with etiological variation in complex disease.
Project description:Genetic association studies provide evidence for a substantial polygenic component to schizophrenia, although the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the disorder remain largely undefined. Building on recent studies supporting a role for developmentally regulated epigenetic variation in the molecular etiology of schizophrenia, this study aimed to identify epigenetic variation associated with both a diagnosis of schizophrenia and elevated polygenic risk burden for the disease across multiple brain regions. Genome-wide DNA methylation was quantified in 262 post-mortem brain samples, representing tissue from four brain regions (prefrontal cortex, striatum, hippocampus and cerebellum) from 41 schizophrenia patients and 47 controls. We identified multiple disease-associated and polygenic risk score-associated differentially methylated positions and regions, many residing in the vicinity of genes previously implicated in schizophrenia including NCAM1, SYNPO, GBP4, PRDM9, GADD45B and DISC1. Our study represents the first analysis of epigenetic variation associated with schizophrenia across multiple brain regions and highlights the utility of polygenic risk scores for identifying molecular pathways associated with etiological variation in complex disease.