biostudies-literatureAvinun RUS-National Institutes of HealthDuke UniversityNIDA NIH HHSNIA NIH HHSODCDC CDC HHSNIH HHSNational Science Foundation Graduate Research FellowshipNational Science Foundation3910-3917https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC6679724biostudies-literatureUnknown40(13)Accumulating research suggests that the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β) has a modulatory effect on the hippocampus, a brain structure important for learning and memory as well as linked with both psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we used an imaging genetics strategy to test an association between an IL-1β polygenic score and hippocampal volume in two independent samples. Our polygenic score was derived using summary statistics from a recent genome-wide association study of circulating cytokines that included IL-1β (N = 3,309). In the first sample of 512 non-Hispanic Caucasian university students (274 women, mean age 19.78 ± 1.24 years) from the Duke Neurogenetics Study, we identified a significant positive correlation between IL-1β polygenic scores and hipHuman brain mappingA genome-wide association study-derived polygenic score for interleukin-1β is associated with hippocampal volume in two samples.PMC6679724S10 OD018164R01DA033369S10 OD021480NSF DGE-1644868R01 DA033369R01AG049789R01DA031579R01 DA031579NSF DGE‐1644868R01 AG049789Knodt ARNevo AHariri ARAvinun RElliott MLfalseA genome-wide association study-derived polygenic score for interleukin-1β is associated with hippocampal volume in two samples.Accumulating research suggests that the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β) has a modulatory effect on the hippocampus, a brain structure important for learning and memory as well as linked with both psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we used an imaging genetics strategy to test an association between an IL-1β polygenic score and hippocampal volume in two independent samples. Our polygenic score was derived using summary statistics from a recent genome-wide association study of circulating cytokines that included IL-1β (N = 3,309). In the first sample of 512 non-Hispanic Caucasian university students (274 women, mean age 19.78 ± 1.24 years) from the Duke Neurogenetics Study, we identified a significant positive correlation between IL-1β polygenic scores and hip2019-01-01T00:00:00Z2019 Sep2025-04-18T21:15:10.762Z2020-06-17T07:02:39ZS-EPMC66797243111984210.1002/hbm.24639