A common variant mapping to CACNA1A is associated with susceptibility to exfoliation syndrome

Author(s): Aung T, Ozaki M, Mizoguchi T, Allingham RR, Li Z, Haripriya A, Nakano S, Uebe S, Harder JM, Chan AS, Lee MC, Burdon KP, Astakhov YS, Abu-Amero KK,Zenteno JC, Nilgün Y, Zarnowski T, Pakravan M, Safieh LA, Jia L, Wang YX, Williams S, Paoli D, Schlottmann PG, Huang L, Sim KS, Foo JN, Nakano M, Ikeda Y, Kumar RS, Ueno M, Manabe S, Hayashi K, Kazama S, Ideta R, Mori Y, Miyata K, Sugiyama K, Higashide T, Chihara E, Inoue K, Ishiko S, Yoshida A, Yanagi M, Kiuchi Y, Aihara M, Ohashi T, Sakurai T, Sugimoto T, Chuman H, Matsuda F, Yamashiro K, Gotoh N, Miyake M, Astakhov SY, Osman EA, Al-Obeidan SA,Owaidhah O, Al-Jasim L, Shahwan SA, Fogarty RA, Leo P, Yetkin Y, Oğuz Ç, Kanavi MR, Beni AN, Yazdani S, Akopov EL, Toh KY, Howell GR, Orr AC, Goh Y,Meah WY, Peh SQ, Kosior-Jarecka E, Lukasik U, Krumbiegel M, Vithana EN, Wong TY, Liu Y, Koch AE, Challa P, Rautenbach RM, Mackey DA, Hewitt AW,Mitchell P, Wang JJ, Ziskind A, Carmichael T, Ramakrishnan R, Narendran K, Venkatesh R, Vijayan S, Zhao P, Chen X, Guadarrama-Vallejo D, Cheng CY,Perera SA, Husain R, Ho SL, Welge-Luessen UC, Mardin C, Schloetzer-Schrehardt U, Hillmer AM, Herms S, Moebus S, Nöthen MM, Weisschuh N, Shetty R,Ghosh A, Teo YY, Brown MA, Lischinsky I; Blue Mountains Eye Study GWAS Team; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2, Crowston JG, Coote M, Zhao B,Sang J, Zhang N, You Q, Vysochinskaya V, Founti P, Chatzikyriakidou A, Lambropoulos A, Anastasopoulos E, Coleman AL, Wilson MR, Rhee DJ, Kang JH,May-Bolchakova I, Heegaard S, Mori K, Alward WL, Jonas JB, Xu L, Liebmann JM, Chowbay B, Schaeffeler E, Schwab M, Lerner F, Wang N, Yang Z, Frezzotti P, Kinoshita S, Fingert JH, Inatani M, Tashiro K, Reis A, Edward DP, Pasquale LR, Kubota T, Wiggs JL, Pasutto F, Topouzis F, Dubina M, Craig JE, Yoshimura N, Sundaresan P, John SW, Ritch R, Hauser MA, Khor CC

Exfoliation syndrome (XFS) is the most common recognizable cause of open-angle glaucoma worldwide. To better understand the etiology of XFS, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 1,484 cases and 1,188 controls from Japan and followed up the most significant findings in a further 6,901 cases and 20,727 controls from 17 countries across 6 continents. We discovered a genome-wide significant association between a new locus (CACNA1A rs4926244) and increased susceptibility to XFS (odds ratio (OR) = 1.16, P = 3.36 × 10(-11)). Although we also confirmed overwhelming association at the LOXL1 locus, the key SNP marker (LOXL1 rs4886776) demonstrated allelic reversal depending on the ancestry group (Japanese: ORA allele = 9.87, P = 2.13 × 10(-217); non-Japanese: ORA allele = 0.49, P = 2.35 × 10(-31)). Our findings represent the first genetic locus outside of LOXL1 surpassing genome-wide significance for XFS and provide insight into the biology and pathogenesis of the disease.

Nat Genet. 2015 Apr;47(4):387-92. doi: 10.1038/ng.3226. Epub 2015 Feb 23.

PMID: 25706626
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25706626

Experimental Paper of the Month manager: Andreas Boehm