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Garmire LX, Li Y, Huang Q, Xu C, Teichmann SA, Kaminski N, Pellegrini M, Nguyen Q, Teschendorff AE. Challenges and perspectives in computational deconvolution of genomics data. Nat Methods 2024; 21:391-400. [PMID: 38374264 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-023-02166-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/26/2023] [Indexed: 02/21/2024]
Abstract
Deciphering cell-type heterogeneity is crucial for systematically understanding tissue homeostasis and its dysregulation in diseases. Computational deconvolution is an efficient approach for estimating cell-type abundances from a variety of omics data. Despite substantial methodological progress in computational deconvolution in recent years, challenges are still outstanding. Here we enlist four important challenges related to computational deconvolution: the quality of the reference data, generation of ground truth data, limitations of computational methodologies, and benchmarking design and implementation. Finally, we make recommendations on reference data generation, new directions of computational methodologies, and strategies to promote rigorous benchmarking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lana X Garmire
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
| | - Yijun Li
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Qianhui Huang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Chuan Xu
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
| | | | - Naftali Kaminski
- Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Matteo Pellegrini
- Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Quan Nguyen
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Andrew E Teschendorff
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- UCL Cancer Institute, University College London, London, UK
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Bakulski KM, Blostein F, London SJ. Linking Prenatal Environmental Exposures to Lifetime Health with Epigenome-Wide Association Studies: State-of-the-Science Review and Future Recommendations. Environ Health Perspect 2023; 131:126001. [PMID: 38048101 PMCID: PMC10695268 DOI: 10.1289/ehp12956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Revised: 10/06/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The prenatal environment influences lifetime health; epigenetic mechanisms likely predominate. In 2016, the first international consortium paper on cigarette smoking during pregnancy and offspring DNA methylation identified extensive, reproducible exposure signals. This finding raised expectations for epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of other exposures. OBJECTIVE We review the current state-of-the-science for DNA methylation associations across prenatal exposures in humans and provide future recommendations. METHODS We reviewed 134 prenatal environmental EWAS of DNA methylation in newborns, focusing on 51 epidemiological studies with meta-analysis or replication testing. Exposures spanned cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, air pollution, dietary factors, psychosocial stress, metals, other chemicals, and other exogenous factors. Of the reproducible DNA methylation signatures, we examined implementation as exposure biomarkers. RESULTS Only 19 (14%) of these prenatal EWAS were conducted in cohorts of 1,000 or more individuals, reflecting the still early stage of the field. To date, the largest perinatal EWAS sample size was 6,685 participants. For comparison, the most recent genome-wide association study for birth weight included more than 300,000 individuals. Replication, at some level, was successful with exposures to cigarette smoking, folate, dietary glycemic index, particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 10 μ m and < 2.5 μ m , nitrogen dioxide, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, electronic waste, PFAS, and DDT. Reproducible effects of a more limited set of prenatal exposures (smoking, folate) enabled robust methylation biomarker creation. DISCUSSION Current evidence demonstrates the scientific premise for reproducible DNA methylation exposure signatures. Better powered EWAS could identify signatures across many exposures and enable comprehensive biomarker development. Whether methylation biomarkers of exposures themselves cause health effects remains unclear. We expect that larger EWAS with enhanced coverage of epigenome and exposome, along with improved single-cell technologies and evolving methods for integrative multi-omics analyses and causal inference, will expand mechanistic understanding of causal links between environmental exposures, the epigenome, and health outcomes throughout the life course. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP12956.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Freida Blostein
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Stephanie J. London
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
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Chen J, Gatev E, Everson T, Conneely KN, Koen N, Epstein MP, Kobor MS, Zar HJ, Stein DJ, Hüls A. Pruning and thresholding approach for methylation risk scores in multi-ancestry populations. Epigenetics 2023; 18:2187172. [PMID: 36908043 PMCID: PMC10026878 DOI: 10.1080/15592294.2023.2187172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent efforts have focused on developing methylation risk scores (MRS), a weighted sum of the individual's DNA methylation (DNAm) values of pre-selected CpG sites. Most of the current MRS approaches that utilize Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) summary statistics only include genome-wide significant CpG sites and do not consider co-methylation. New methods that relax the p-value threshold to include more CpG sites and account for the inter-correlation of DNAm might improve the predictive performance of MRS. We paired informed co-methylation pruning with P-value thresholding to generate pruning and thresholding (P+T) MRS and evaluated its performance among multi-ancestry populations. Through simulation studies and real data analyses, we demonstrated that pruning provides an improvement over simple thresholding methods for prediction of phenotypes. We demonstrated that European-derived summary statistics can be used to develop P+T MRS among other populations such as African populations. However, the prediction accuracy of P+T MRS may differ across multi-ancestry population due to environmental/cultural/social differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junyu Chen
- Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA USA
| | - Evan Gatev
- Institute of Molecular Biology "Acad. Roumen Tsanev", Sofia, Bulgaria
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Todd Everson
- Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA USA
- Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
| | - Karen N Conneely
- Department of Human Genetics, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA USA
| | - Nastassja Koen
- Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Michael P Epstein
- Department of Human Genetics, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA USA
| | - Michael S Kobor
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
- BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Heather J Zar
- Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Unit on Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Dan J Stein
- Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Anke Hüls
- Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA USA
- Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
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Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Enormous progress has been made in understanding the genetic architecture of obesity and the correlation of epigenetic marks with obesity and related traits. This review highlights current research and its challenges in genetics and epigenetics of obesity. RECENT FINDINGS Recent progress in genetics of polygenic traits, particularly represented by genome-wide association studies, led to the discovery of hundreds of genetic variants associated with obesity, which allows constructing polygenic risk scores (PGS). In addition, epigenome-wide association studies helped identifying novel targets and methylation sites being important in the pathophysiology of obesity and which are essential for the generation of methylation risk scores (MRS). Despite their great potential for predicting the individual risk for obesity, the use of PGS and MRS remains challenging. Future research will likely discover more loci being involved in obesity, which will contribute to better understanding of the complex etiology of human obesity. The ultimate goal from a clinical perspective will be generating highly robust and accurate prediction scores allowing clinicians to predict obesity as well as individual responses to body weight loss-specific life-style interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Keller
- Medical Department III-Endocrinology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, Medical Center, University of Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
- Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Leipzig, University Hospital Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Stina Ingrid Alice Svensson
- EpiGen, Department of Clinical Molecular Biology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, 0316, Oslo, Norway
| | - Kerstin Rohde-Zimmermann
- Medical Department III-Endocrinology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, Medical Center, University of Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
- Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Leipzig, University Hospital Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Peter Kovacs
- Medical Department III-Endocrinology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, Medical Center, University of Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Yvonne Böttcher
- EpiGen, Department of Clinical Molecular Biology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, 0316, Oslo, Norway.
- EpiGen, Medical Division, Akershus University Hospital, 1478, Lørenskog, Norway.
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Ng JWY, Felix JF, Olson DM. A novel approach to risk exposure and epigenetics-the use of multidimensional context to gain insights into the early origins of cardiometabolic and neurocognitive health. BMC Med 2023; 21:466. [PMID: 38012757 PMCID: PMC10683259 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-023-03168-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Each mother-child dyad represents a unique combination of genetic and environmental factors. This constellation of variables impacts the expression of countless genes. Numerous studies have uncovered changes in DNA methylation (DNAm), a form of epigenetic regulation, in offspring related to maternal risk factors. How these changes work together to link maternal-child risks to childhood cardiometabolic and neurocognitive traits remains unknown. This question is a key research priority as such traits predispose to future non-communicable diseases (NCDs). We propose viewing risk and the genome through a multidimensional lens to identify common DNAm patterns shared among diverse risk profiles. METHODS We identified multifactorial Maternal Risk Profiles (MRPs) generated from population-based data (n = 15,454, Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)). Using cord blood HumanMethylation450 BeadChip data, we identified genome-wide patterns of DNAm that co-vary with these MRPs. We tested the prospective relation of these DNAm patterns (n = 914) to future outcomes using decision tree analysis. We then tested the reproducibility of these patterns in (1) DNAm data at age 7 and 17 years within the same cohort (n = 973 and 974, respectively) and (2) cord DNAm in an independent cohort, the Generation R Study (n = 686). RESULTS We identified twenty MRP-related DNAm patterns at birth in ALSPAC. Four were prospectively related to cardiometabolic and/or neurocognitive childhood outcomes. These patterns were replicated in DNAm data from blood collected at later ages. Three of these patterns were externally validated in cord DNAm data in Generation R. Compared to previous literature, DNAm patterns exhibited novel spatial distribution across the genome that intersects with chromatin functional and tissue-specific signatures. CONCLUSIONS To our knowledge, we are the first to leverage multifactorial population-wide data to detect patterns of variability in DNAm. This context-based approach decreases biases stemming from overreliance on specific samples or variables. We discovered molecular patterns demonstrating prospective and replicable relations to complex traits. Moreover, results suggest that patterns harbour a genome-wide organisation specific to chromatin regulation and target tissues. These preliminary findings warrant further investigation to better reflect the reality of human context in molecular studies of NCDs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jane W Y Ng
- Department of Pediatrics, Cummings School of Medicine, University of Calgary, 28 Oki Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T3B 6A8, Canada
| | - Janine F Felix
- The Generation F Study Group, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Postbus, 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - David M Olson
- Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Physiology, and Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, 220 HMRC, Edmonton, AB, T6G2S2, Canada.
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Colwell ML, Townsel C, Petroff RL, Goodrich JM, Dolinoy DC. Epigenetics and the Exposome: DNA Methylation as a Proxy for Health Impacts of Prenatal Environmental Exposures. Exposome 2023; 3:osad001. [PMID: 37333730 PMCID: PMC10275510 DOI: 10.1093/exposome/osad001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/20/2023]
Abstract
The accumulation of every day exposures can impact health across the life course, but our understanding of such exposures is impeded by our ability to delineate the relationship between an individual's early life exposome and later life health effects. Measuring the exposome is challenging. Exposure assessed at a given time point captures a snapshot of the exposome but does not represent the full spectrum of exposures across the life course. In addition, the assessment of early life exposures and their effects is often further challenged by lack of relevant samples and the time gap between exposures and related health outcomes in later life. Epigenetics, specifically DNA methylation, has the potential to overcome these barriers as environmental epigenetic perturbances can be retained through time. In this review, we describe how DNA methylation can be framed in the world of the exposome. We offer three compelling examples of common environmental exposures, including cigarette smoke, the endocrine active compound bisphenol A (BPA), and the metal lead (Pb), to illustrate the application of DNA methylation as a proxy to measure the exposome. We discuss areas for future explorations and current limitations of this approach. Epigenetic profiling is a promising and rapidly developing tool and field of study, offering us a unique and powerful way to assess the early life exposome and its effects across different life stages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathia L. Colwell
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Courtney Townsel
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Rebekah L. Petroff
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Jaclyn M. Goodrich
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Dana C. Dolinoy
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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Wattacheril JJ, Raj S, Knowles DA, Greally JM. Using epigenomics to understand cellular responses to environmental influences in diseases. PLoS Genet 2023; 19:e1010567. [PMID: 36656803 PMCID: PMC9851565 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
It is a generally accepted model that environmental influences can exert their effects, at least in part, by changing the molecular regulators of transcription that are described as epigenetic. As there is biochemical evidence that some epigenetic regulators of transcription can maintain their states long term and through cell division, an epigenetic model encompasses the idea of maintenance of the effect of an exposure long after it is no longer present. The evidence supporting this model is mostly from the observation of alterations of molecular regulators of transcription following exposures. With the understanding that the interpretation of these associations is more complex than originally recognised, this model may be oversimplistic; therefore, adopting novel perspectives and experimental approaches when examining how environmental exposures are linked to phenotypes may prove worthwhile. In this review, we have chosen to use the example of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a common, complex human disease with strong environmental and genetic influences. We describe how epigenomic approaches combined with emerging functional genetic and single-cell genomic techniques are poised to generate new insights into the pathogenesis of environmentally influenced human disease phenotypes exemplified by NAFLD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia J. Wattacheril
- Department of Medicine, Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Srilakshmi Raj
- Division of Genomics, Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States of America
| | - David A. Knowles
- New York Genome Center, New York, New York, United States of America
- Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - John M. Greally
- Division of Genomics, Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States of America
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Cappozzo A, McCrory C, Robinson O, Freni Sterrantino A, Sacerdote C, Krogh V, Panico S, Tumino R, Iacoviello L, Ricceri F, Sieri S, Chiodini P, McKay GJ, McKnight AJ, Kee F, Young IS, McGuinness B, Crimmins EM, Arpawong TE, Kenny RA, O'Halloran A, Polidoro S, Solinas G, Vineis P, Ieva F, Fiorito G. A blood DNA methylation biomarker for predicting short-term risk of cardiovascular events. Clin Epigenetics 2022; 14:121. [PMID: 36175966 PMCID: PMC9521011 DOI: 10.1186/s13148-022-01341-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2022] [Accepted: 09/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent evidence highlights the epidemiological value of blood DNA methylation (DNAm) as surrogate biomarker for exposure to risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD). DNAm surrogate of exposures predicts diseases and longevity better than self-reported or measured exposures in many cases. Consequently, disease prediction models based on blood DNAm surrogates may outperform current state-of-the-art prediction models. This study aims to develop novel DNAm surrogates for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk factors and develop a composite biomarker predictive of CVD risk. We compared the prediction performance of our newly developed risk score with the state-of-the-art DNAm risk scores for cardiovascular diseases, the 'next-generation' epigenetic clock DNAmGrimAge, and the prediction model based on traditional risk factors SCORE2. RESULTS Using data from the EPIC Italy cohort, we derived novel DNAm surrogates for BMI, blood pressure, fasting glucose and insulin, cholesterol, triglycerides, and coagulation biomarkers. We validated them in four independent data sets from Europe and the USA. Further, we derived a DNAmCVDscore predictive of the time-to-CVD event as a combination of several DNAm surrogates. ROC curve analyses show that DNAmCVDscore outperforms previously developed DNAm scores for CVD risk and SCORE2 for short-term CVD risk. Interestingly, the performance of DNAmGrimAge and DNAmCVDscore was comparable (slightly lower for DNAmGrimAge, although the differences were not statistically significant). CONCLUSIONS We described novel DNAm surrogates for CVD risk factors useful for future molecular epidemiology research, and we described a blood DNAm-based composite biomarker, DNAmCVDscore, predictive of short-term cardiovascular events. Our results highlight the usefulness of DNAm surrogate biomarkers of risk factors in epigenetic epidemiology to identify high-risk populations. In addition, we provide further evidence on the effectiveness of prediction models based on DNAm surrogates and discuss methodological aspects for further improvements. Finally, our results encourage testing this approach for other NCD diseases by training and developing DNAm surrogates for disease-specific risk factors and exposures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Cappozzo
- MOX - Laboratory for Modeling and Scientific Computing, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Cathal McCrory
- Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Oliver Robinson
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Anna Freni Sterrantino
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
- The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK
| | - Carlotta Sacerdote
- Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, Città della Salute e della Scienza University-Hospital, Turin, Italy
| | - Vittorio Krogh
- Fondazione IRCCS - Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Salvatore Panico
- Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Rosario Tumino
- Association for Epidemiology Research, AIRE ONLYS, Ragusa, Italy
| | - Licia Iacoviello
- Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, IRCCS NEUROMED, Pozzilli, Italy
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Research Center in Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (EPIMED), Turin, Italy
| | - Fulvio Ricceri
- Epidemiology Unit, Regional Health Service TO3, Grugliasco, Italy
- Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, Centre for Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Public Health (C-BEPH), University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Sabina Sieri
- Fondazione IRCCS - Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Paolo Chiodini
- Department of Mental, Physical Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Campania 'Luigi Vanvitelli', Caserta, Italy
| | - Gareth J McKay
- Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | | | - Frank Kee
- Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Ian S Young
- Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | | | - Eileen M Crimmins
- Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Thalida Em Arpawong
- Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Rose Anne Kenny
- Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Aisling O'Halloran
- Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | | | - Giuliana Solinas
- Laboratory Biostatistics, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Via Padre Manzella 4, Sassari, Italy
| | - Paolo Vineis
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Francesca Ieva
- MOX - Laboratory for Modeling and Scientific Computing, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
- CHDS - Health Data Science Center, Human Technopole, Milan, Italy
| | - Giovanni Fiorito
- Department of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
- MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
- Laboratory Biostatistics, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Via Padre Manzella 4, Sassari, Italy.
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Fuentes-Paez G, Escaramís G, Aguilar-Lacasaña S, Andrusaityte S, Brantsæter AL, Casas M, Charles MA, Chatzi L, Lepeule J, Grazuleviciene R, Gützkow KB, Heude B, Maitre L, Ruiz-Arenas C, Sunyer J, Urquiza J, Yang TC, Wright J, Vrijheid M, Vilor-Tejedor N, Bustamante M. Study of the Combined Effect of Maternal Tobacco Smoking and Polygenic Risk Scores on Birth Weight and Body Mass Index in Childhood. Front Genet 2022; 13:867611. [PMID: 35646076 PMCID: PMC9133473 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.867611] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2022] [Accepted: 04/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Maternal smoking during pregnancy has adverse health effects on the offspring, including lower birth weight and increased risk for obesity. These outcomes are also influenced by common genetic polymorphisms. We aimed to investigate the combined effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy and genetic predisposition on birth weight and body mass index (BMI)-related traits in 1,086 children of the Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) project.Methods: Maternal smoking during pregnancy was self-reported. Phenotypic traits were assessed at birth or at the age of 8 years. Ten polygenic risk scores (PRSs) per trait were calculated using the PRSice v2 program. For birth weight, we estimated two sets of PRSs based on two different base GWAS summary statistics: PRS-EGG, which includes HELIX children, and PRS-PanUK, which is completely independent. The best PRS per trait (highest R2) was selected for downstream analyses, and it was treated in continuous or categorized into three groups. Multivariate linear regression models were applied to evaluate the association of the explanatory variables with the traits of interest. The combined effect was evaluated by including an interaction term in the regression models and then running models stratified by the PRS group.Results: BMI-related traits were correlated among them but not with birth weight. A similar pattern was observed for their PRSs. On average, the PRSs explained ∼4% of the phenotypic variation, with higher PRS values related to higher trait values (p-value <5.55E-08). Sustained maternal smoking was associated with lower birth weight and higher BMI and related traits (p-value <2.99E-02). We identified a gene by environment (GxE) interaction for birth weight between sustained maternal smoking and the PRS-EGG in three groups (p-value interaction = 0.01), which was not replicated with the PRS-PanUK (p-value interaction = 0.341). Finally, we did not find any statistically significant GxE interaction for BMI-related traits (p-value interaction >0.237).Conclusion: Sustained maternal smoking and the PRSs were independently associated with birth weight and childhood BMI-related traits. There was low evidence of GxE interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georgina Fuentes-Paez
- Endocrine Regulatory Genomics, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Geòrgia Escaramís
- CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
- Departament de Biomedicina, Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Sofía Aguilar-Lacasaña
- CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
- Childhood and Environment, ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Sandra Andrusaityte
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
| | - Anne Lise Brantsæter
- Climate and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Maribel Casas
- CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
- Childhood and Environment, ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marie-Aline Charles
- Université de Paris Cité, Inserm, INRAE, Centre of Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), Paris, France
| | - Leda Chatzi
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Johanna Lepeule
- Inserm, CNRS, Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Development and Respiratory Health, Institute for Advanced Biosciences, University Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
| | | | - Kristine B. Gützkow
- Climate and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Barbara Heude
- Université de Paris Cité, Inserm, INRAE, Centre of Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), Paris, France
| | - Léa Maitre
- CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
- Childhood and Environment, ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Carlos Ruiz-Arenas
- Genetics Unit, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- CIBER Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jordi Sunyer
- CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
- Childhood and Environment, ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- Fundació Institut Mar D'Investigacions Mèdiques (IMIM), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jose Urquiza
- CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
- Childhood and Environment, ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Tiffany C. Yang
- Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford, United Kingdom
| | - John Wright
- Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford, United Kingdom
| | - Martine Vrijheid
- CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
- Childhood and Environment, ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Natàlia Vilor-Tejedor
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
| | - Mariona Bustamante
- CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
- Childhood and Environment, ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- *Correspondence: Mariona Bustamante,
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10
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Kothalawala DM, Kadalayil L, Curtin JA, Murray CS, Simpson A, Custovic A, Tapper WJ, Arshad SH, Rezwan FI, Holloway JW. Integration of Genomic Risk Scores to Improve the Prediction of Childhood Asthma Diagnosis. J Pers Med 2022; 12:75. [PMID: 35055391 PMCID: PMC8777841 DOI: 10.3390/jpm12010075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Revised: 12/18/2021] [Accepted: 12/31/2021] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide and epigenome-wide association studies have identified genetic variants and differentially methylated nucleotides associated with childhood asthma. Incorporation of such genomic data may improve performance of childhood asthma prediction models which use phenotypic and environmental data. Using genome-wide genotype and methylation data at birth from the Isle of Wight Birth Cohort (n = 1456), a polygenic risk score (PRS), and newborn (nMRS) and childhood (cMRS) methylation risk scores, were developed to predict childhood asthma diagnosis. Each risk score was integrated with two previously published childhood asthma prediction models (CAPE and CAPP) and were validated in the Manchester Asthma and Allergy Study. Individually, the genomic risk scores demonstrated modest-to-moderate discriminative performance (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, AUC: PRS = 0.64, nMRS = 0.55, cMRS = 0.54), and their integration only marginally improved the performance of the CAPE (AUC: 0.75 vs. 0.71) and CAPP models (AUC: 0.84 vs. 0.82). The limited predictive performance of each genomic risk score individually and their inability to substantially improve upon the performance of the CAPE and CAPP models suggests that genetic and epigenetic predictors of the broad phenotype of asthma are unlikely to have clinical utility. Hence, further studies predicting specific asthma endotypes are warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dilini M. Kothalawala
- Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK; (D.M.K.); (L.K.); (W.J.T.); (F.I.R.)
- NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK;
| | - Latha Kadalayil
- Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK; (D.M.K.); (L.K.); (W.J.T.); (F.I.R.)
- Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
| | - John A. Curtin
- Division of Infection, Immunity, and Respiratory Medicine, School of Biological Sciences, Manchester University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; (J.A.C.); (C.S.M.); (A.S.)
| | - Clare S. Murray
- Division of Infection, Immunity, and Respiratory Medicine, School of Biological Sciences, Manchester University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; (J.A.C.); (C.S.M.); (A.S.)
| | - Angela Simpson
- Division of Infection, Immunity, and Respiratory Medicine, School of Biological Sciences, Manchester University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; (J.A.C.); (C.S.M.); (A.S.)
| | - Adnan Custovic
- National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, London SW3 6LY, UK;
| | - William J. Tapper
- Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK; (D.M.K.); (L.K.); (W.J.T.); (F.I.R.)
| | - S. Hasan Arshad
- NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK;
- Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
- The David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre, St. Mary’s Hospital, Isle of Wight PO30 5TG, UK
| | - Faisal I. Rezwan
- Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK; (D.M.K.); (L.K.); (W.J.T.); (F.I.R.)
- Department of Computer Science, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK
| | - John W. Holloway
- Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK; (D.M.K.); (L.K.); (W.J.T.); (F.I.R.)
- NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK;
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11
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Campagna MP, Xavier A, Lechner-Scott J, Maltby V, Scott RJ, Butzkueven H, Jokubaitis VG, Lea RA. Epigenome-wide association studies: current knowledge, strategies and recommendations. Clin Epigenetics 2021; 13:214. [PMID: 34863305 PMCID: PMC8645110 DOI: 10.1186/s13148-021-01200-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Accepted: 11/19/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The aetiology and pathophysiology of complex diseases are driven by the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. The variability in risk and outcomes in these diseases are incompletely explained by genetics or environmental risk factors individually. Therefore, researchers are now exploring the epigenome, a biological interface at which genetics and the environment can interact. There is a growing body of evidence supporting the role of epigenetic mechanisms in complex disease pathophysiology. Epigenome-wide association studies (EWASes) investigate the association between a phenotype and epigenetic variants, most commonly DNA methylation. The decreasing cost of measuring epigenome-wide methylation and the increasing accessibility of bioinformatic pipelines have contributed to the rise in EWASes published in recent years. Here, we review the current literature on these EWASes and provide further recommendations and strategies for successfully conducting them. We have constrained our review to studies using methylation data as this is the most studied epigenetic mechanism; microarray-based data as whole-genome bisulphite sequencing remains prohibitively expensive for most laboratories; and blood-based studies due to the non-invasiveness of peripheral blood collection and availability of archived DNA, as well as the accessibility of publicly available blood-cell-based methylation data. Further, we address multiple novel areas of EWAS analysis that have not been covered in previous reviews: (1) longitudinal study designs, (2) the chip analysis methylation pipeline (ChAMP), (3) differentially methylated region (DMR) identification paradigms, (4) methylation quantitative trait loci (methQTL) analysis, (5) methylation age analysis and (6) identifying cell-specific differential methylation from mixed cell data using statistical deconvolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Pia Campagna
- Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Alexandre Xavier
- Centre for Information Based Medicine, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, Australia
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
| | - Jeannette Lechner-Scott
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
- Department of Neurology, Division of Medicine, John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, Australia
| | - Vicky Maltby
- Centre for Information Based Medicine, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, Australia
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
| | - Rodney J Scott
- Centre for Information Based Medicine, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, Australia
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
- Division of Molecular Medicine, New South Wales Health Pathology North, Newcastle, Australia
| | - Helmut Butzkueven
- Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Neurology, Alfred Health, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Vilija G Jokubaitis
- Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Neurology, Alfred Health, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Rodney A Lea
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.
- Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
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