TY - JOUR

T1 - Evaluation of shared genetic susceptibility loci between autoimmune diseases and schizophrenia based on genome-wide association studies

AU - Hoeffding, Louise K E

AU - Rosengren, Anders

AU - Thygesen, Johan H

AU - Schmock, Henriette

AU - Werge, Thomas

AU - Hansen, Thomas

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Background: Epidemiological studies have documented higher than expected comorbidity (or, in some cases, inverse comorbidity) between schizophrenia and several autoimmune disorders. It remains unknown whether this comorbidity reflects shared genetic susceptibility loci. Aims: The present study aimed to investigate whether verified genome wide significant variants of autoimmune disorders confer risk of schizophrenia, which could suggest a common genetic basis. Methods: Seven hundred and fourteen genome wide significant risk variants of 25 autoimmune disorders were extracted from the NHGRI GWAS catalogue and examined for association to schizophrenia in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium schizophrenia GWAS samples (36,989 cases and 113,075 controls). Results: Two independent loci at 4q24 and 6p21.32–33 originally identified from GWAS of autoimmune diseases were found genome wide associated with schizophrenia (1.7 × 10−8≥ p ≥ 4.0 × 10−21). While these observations confirm the existence of shared genetic susceptibility loci between schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases, the findings did not show a significant enrichment. Conclusion: The findings do not support a genetic overlap in common SNPs between autoimmune diseases and schizophrenia that in part could explain the observed comorbidity from epidemiological studies.

AB - Background: Epidemiological studies have documented higher than expected comorbidity (or, in some cases, inverse comorbidity) between schizophrenia and several autoimmune disorders. It remains unknown whether this comorbidity reflects shared genetic susceptibility loci. Aims: The present study aimed to investigate whether verified genome wide significant variants of autoimmune disorders confer risk of schizophrenia, which could suggest a common genetic basis. Methods: Seven hundred and fourteen genome wide significant risk variants of 25 autoimmune disorders were extracted from the NHGRI GWAS catalogue and examined for association to schizophrenia in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium schizophrenia GWAS samples (36,989 cases and 113,075 controls). Results: Two independent loci at 4q24 and 6p21.32–33 originally identified from GWAS of autoimmune diseases were found genome wide associated with schizophrenia (1.7 × 10−8≥ p ≥ 4.0 × 10−21). While these observations confirm the existence of shared genetic susceptibility loci between schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases, the findings did not show a significant enrichment. Conclusion: The findings do not support a genetic overlap in common SNPs between autoimmune diseases and schizophrenia that in part could explain the observed comorbidity from epidemiological studies.

KW - autoimmune diseases

KW - comorbidity

KW - GWAS

KW - schizophrenia

U2 - 10.1080/08039488.2016.1198420

DO - 10.1080/08039488.2016.1198420

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27348781

AN - SCOPUS:84976314000

VL - 71

SP - 20

EP - 25

JO - Nordisk Psykiatrisk Tidsskrift

JF - Nordisk Psykiatrisk Tidsskrift

SN - 0803-9496

IS - 1

ER -