[HTML][HTML] Risk alleles for multiple sclerosis identified by a genomewide study

International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics … - New England Journal …, 2007 - Mass Medical Soc
International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium
New England Journal of Medicine, 2007Mass Medical Soc
Background Multiple sclerosis has a clinically significant heritable component. We
conducted a genomewide association study to identify alleles associated with the risk of
multiple sclerosis. Methods We used DNA microarray technology to identify common DNA
sequence variants in 931 family trios (consisting of an affected child and both parents) and
tested them for association. For replication, we genotyped another 609 family trios, 2322
case subjects, and 789 control subjects and used genotyping data from two external control …
Background
Multiple sclerosis has a clinically significant heritable component. We conducted a genomewide association study to identify alleles associated with the risk of multiple sclerosis.
Methods
We used DNA microarray technology to identify common DNA sequence variants in 931 family trios (consisting of an affected child and both parents) and tested them for association. For replication, we genotyped another 609 family trios, 2322 case subjects, and 789 control subjects and used genotyping data from two external control data sets. A joint analysis of data from 12,360 subjects was performed to estimate the overall significance and effect size of associations between alleles and the risk of multiple sclerosis.
Results
A transmission disequilibrium test of 334,923 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 931 family trios revealed 49 SNPs having an association with multiple sclerosis (P<1×10−4); of these SNPs, 38 were selected for the second-stage analysis. A comparison between the 931 case subjects from the family trios and 2431 control subjects identified an additional nonoverlapping 32 SNPs (P<0.001). An additional 40 SNPs with less stringent P values (<0.01) were also selected, for a total of 110 SNPs for the second-stage analysis. Of these SNPs, two within the interleukin-2 receptor α gene (IL2RA) were strongly associated with multiple sclerosis (P=2.96×10−8), as were a nonsynonymous SNP in the interleukin-7 receptor α gene (IL7RA) (P=2.94×10−7) and multiple SNPs in the HLA-DRA locus (P=8.94×10−81).
Conclusions
Alleles of IL2RA and IL7RA and those in the HLA locus are identified as heritable risk factors for multiple sclerosis.
The New England Journal Of Medicine