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Lee PH, Perlis RH, Jung JY, Byrne EM, Rueckert E, Siburian R, Haddad S, Mayerfeld CE, Heath AC, Pergadia ML, Madden PAF, Boomsma DI, Penninx BW, Sklar P, Martin NG, Wray NR, Purcell SM, Smoller JW. Multi-locus genome-wide association analysis supports the role of glutamatergic synaptic transmission in the etiology of major depressive disorder. Transl Psychiatry 2012; 2:e184. [PMID: 23149448 PMCID: PMC3565768 DOI: 10.1038/tp.2012.95] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric illness characterized by low mood and loss of interest in pleasurable activities. Despite years of effort, recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified few susceptibility variants or genes that are robustly associated with MDD. Standard single-SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism)-based GWAS analysis typically has limited power to deal with the extensive heterogeneity and substantial polygenic contribution of individually weak genetic effects underlying the pathogenesis of MDD. Here, we report an alternative, gene-set-based association analysis of MDD in an effort to identify groups of biologically related genetic variants that are involved in the same molecular function or cellular processes and exhibit a significant level of aggregated association with MDD. In particular, we used a text-mining-based data analysis to prioritize candidate gene sets implicated in MDD and conducted a multi-locus association analysis to look for enriched signals of nominally associated MDD susceptibility loci within each of the gene sets. Our primary analysis is based on the meta-analysis of three large MDD GWAS data sets (total N=4346 cases and 4430 controls). After correction for multiple testing, we found that genes involved in glutamatergic synaptic neurotransmission were significantly associated with MDD (set-based association P=6.9 × 10(-4)). This result is consistent with previous studies that support a role of the glutamatergic system in synaptic plasticity and MDD and support the potential utility of targeting glutamatergic neurotransmission in the treatment of MDD.
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Affiliation(s)
- P H Lee
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA,Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - R H Perlis
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA,Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA,Psychiatric Genetics Program in Mood and Anxiety Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - J-Y Jung
- Center for Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - E M Byrne
- Genetic Epidemiology, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, QLD, Australia,University of Queensland, Brisbane St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - E Rueckert
- Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA,Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - R Siburian
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - S Haddad
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - C E Mayerfeld
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - A C Heath
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, MO, USA
| | - M L Pergadia
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, MO, USA
| | - P A F Madden
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, MO, USA
| | - D I Boomsma
- Department of Biological Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - B W Penninx
- Department of Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - P Sklar
- Division of Psychiatric Genomics, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - N G Martin
- Genetic Epidemiology, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - N R Wray
- University of Queensland, Brisbane St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - S M Purcell
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA,Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA,Division of Psychiatric Genomics, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - J W Smoller
- Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA,Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA,Psychiatric Genetics Program in Mood and Anxiety Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Simches Research Building, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
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