Browsing by Author "Demontis, Ditte"

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    Cross-ancestry genetic investigation of schizophrenia, cannabis use disorder, and tobacco smoking
    (Springer Nature, 2024) Johnson, Emma C.; Austin-Zimmerman, Isabelle; Thorpe, Hayley H. A.; Levey, Daniel F.; Baranger, David A. A.; Colbert, Sarah M. C.; Demontis, Ditte; Khokhar, Jibran Y.; Davis, Lea K.; Edenberg, Howard J.; Di Forti, Marta; Sanchez-Roige, Sandra; Gelernter, Joel; Agrawal, Arpana; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    Individuals with schizophrenia frequently experience co-occurring substance use, including tobacco smoking and heavy cannabis use, and substance use disorders. There is interest in understanding the extent to which these relationships are causal, and to what extent shared genetic factors play a role. We explored the relationships between schizophrenia (Scz; European ancestry N = 161,405; African ancestry N = 15,846), cannabis use disorder (CanUD; European ancestry N = 886,025; African ancestry N = 120,208), and ever-regular tobacco smoking (Smk; European ancestry N = 805,431; African ancestry N = 24,278) using the largest available genome-wide studies of these phenotypes in individuals of African and European ancestries. All three phenotypes were positively genetically correlated (rgs = 0.17-0.62). Genetic instrumental variable analyses suggested the presence of shared heritable factors, but evidence for bidirectional causal relationships was also found between all three phenotypes even after correcting for these shared genetic factors. We identified 327 pleiotropic loci with 439 lead SNPs in the European ancestry data, 150 of which were novel (i.e., not genome-wide significant in the original studies). Of these pleiotropic loci, 202 had lead variants which showed convergent effects (i.e., same direction of effect) on Scz, CanUD, and Smk. Genetic variants convergent across all three phenotypes showed strong genetic correlations with risk-taking, executive function, and several mental health conditions. Our results suggest that both shared genetic factors and causal mechanisms may play a role in the relationship between CanUD, Smk, and Scz, but longitudinal, prospective studies are needed to confirm a causal relationship.
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    Cross-ancestry genetic investigation of schizophrenia, cannabis use disorder, and tobacco smoking
    (medRxiv, 2024-01-18) Johnson, Emma C.; Austin-Zimmerman, Isabelle; Thorpe, Hayley H. A.; Levey, Daniel F.; Baranger, David A. A.; Colbert, Sarah M. C.; Demontis, Ditte; Khokhar, Jibran Y.; Davis, Lea K.; Edenberg, Howard J.; Di Forti, Marta; Sanchez-Roige, Sandra; Gelernter, Joel; Agrawal, Arpana; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine
    Individuals with schizophrenia frequently experience co-occurring substance use, including tobacco smoking and heavy cannabis use, and substance use disorders. There is interest in understanding the extent to which these relationships are causal, and to what extent shared genetic factors play a role. We explored the relationships between schizophrenia (Scz), cannabis use disorder (CanUD), and ever-regular tobacco smoking (Smk) using the largest available genome-wide studies of these phenotypes in individuals of African and European ancestries. All three phenotypes were positively genetically correlated (rgs = 0.17 - 0.62). Causal inference analyses suggested the presence of horizontal pleiotropy, but evidence for bidirectional causal relationships was also found between all three phenotypes even after correcting for horizontal pleiotropy. We identified 439 pleiotropic loci in the European ancestry data, 150 of which were novel (i.e., not genome-wide significant in the original studies). Of these pleiotropic loci, 202 had lead variants which showed convergent effects (i.e., same direction of effect) on Scz, CanUD, and Smk. Genetic variants convergent across all three phenotypes showed strong genetic correlations with risk-taking, executive function, and several mental health conditions. Our results suggest that both horizontal pleiotropy and causal mechanisms may play a role in the relationship between CanUD, Smk, and Scz, but longitudinal, prospective studies are needed to confirm a causal relationship.
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    Examining Sex-Differentiated Genetic Effects Across Neuropsychiatric and Behavioral Traits
    (Elsevier, 2021-06-15) Martin, Joanna; Khramtsova, Ekaterina A.; Goleva, Slavina B.; Blokland, Gabriëlla A.M.; Traglia, Michela; Walters, Raymond K.; Hübel, Christopher; Coleman, Jonathan R.I.; Breen, Gerome; Børglum, Anders D.; Demontis, Ditte; Grove, Jakob; Werge, Thomas; Bralten, Janita; Bulik, Cynthia M.; Lee, Phil H.; Mathews, Carol A.; Peterson, Roseann E.; Winham, Stacey J.; Wray, Naomi; Edenberg, Howard J.; Guo, Wei; Yao, Yin; Neale, Benjamin M.; Faraone, Stephen V.; Petryshen, Tracey L.; Weiss, Lauren A.; Duncan, Laramie E.; Goldstein, Jill M.; Smoller, Jordan W.; Stranger, Barbara E.; Davis, Lea K.; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine
    Background: The origin of sex differences in prevalence and presentation of neuropsychiatric and behavioral traits is largely unknown. Given established genetic contributions and correlations, we tested for a sex-differentiated genetic architecture within and between traits. Methods: Using European ancestry genome-wide association summary statistics for 20 neuropsychiatric and behavioral traits, we tested for sex differences in single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability and genetic correlation (rg < 1). For each trait, we computed per-SNP z scores from sex-stratified regression coefficients and identified genes with sex-differentiated effects using a gene-based approach. We calculated correlation coefficients between z scores to test for shared sex-differentiated effects. Finally, we tested for sex differences in across-trait genetic correlations. Results: We observed no consistent sex differences in SNP-based heritability. Between-sex, within-trait genetic correlations were high, although <1 for educational attainment and risk-taking behavior. We identified 4 genes with significant sex-differentiated effects across 3 traits. Several trait pairs shared sex-differentiated effects. The top genes with sex-differentiated effects were enriched for multiple gene sets, including neuron- and synapse-related sets. Most between-trait genetic correlation estimates were not significantly different between sexes, with exceptions (educational attainment and risk-taking behavior). Conclusions: Sex differences in the common autosomal genetic architecture of neuropsychiatric and behavioral phenotypes are small and polygenic and unlikely to fully account for observed sex-differentiated attributes. Larger sample sizes are needed to identify sex-differentiated effects for most traits. For well-powered studies, we identified genes with sex-differentiated effects that were enriched for neuron-related and other biological functions. This work motivates further investigation of genetic and environmental influences on sex differences.
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    Genome-wide association study in individuals of European and African ancestry and multi-trait analysis of opioid use disorder identifies 19 independent genome-wide significant risk loci
    (Springer, 2022-10) Deak, Joseph D.; Zhou, Hang; Galimberti, Marco; Levey, Daniel F.; Wendt, Frank R.; Sanchez-Roige, Sandra; Hatoum, Alexander S.; Johnson, Emma C.; Nunez, Yaira Z.; Demontis, Ditte; Børglum, Anders D.; Rajagopal, Veera M.; Jennings, Mariela V.; Kember, Rachel L.; Justice, Amy C.; Edenberg, Howard J.; Agrawal, Arpana; Polimanti, Renato; Kranzler, Henry R.; Gelernter, Joel; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine
    Despite the large toll of opioid use disorder (OUD), genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of OUD to date have yielded few susceptibility loci. We performed a large-scale GWAS of OUD in individuals of European (EUR) and African (AFR) ancestry, optimizing genetic informativeness by performing MTAG (Multi-trait analysis of GWAS) with genetically correlated substance use disorders (SUDs). Meta-analysis included seven cohorts: the Million Veteran Program, Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, iPSYCH, FinnGen, Partners Biobank, BioVU, and Yale-Penn 3, resulting in a total N = 639,063 (Ncases = 20,686;Neffective = 77,026) across ancestries. OUD cases were defined as having a lifetime OUD diagnosis, and controls as anyone not known to meet OUD criteria. We estimated SNP-heritability (h2SNP) and genetic correlations (rg). Based on genetic correlation, we performed MTAG on OUD, alcohol use disorder (AUD), and cannabis use disorder (CanUD). A leave-one-out polygenic risk score (PRS) analysis was performed to compare OUD and OUD-MTAG PRS as predictors of OUD case status in Yale-Penn 3. The EUR meta-analysis identified three genome-wide significant (GWS; p ≤ 5 × 10−8) lead SNPs—one at FURIN (rs11372849; p = 9.54 × 10−10) and two OPRM1 variants (rs1799971, p = 4.92 × 10−09; rs79704991, p = 1.11 × 10−08; r2 = 0.02). Rs1799971 (p = 4.91 × 10−08) and another OPRM1 variant (rs9478500; p = 1.95 × 10−08; r2 = 0.03) were identified in the cross-ancestry meta-analysis. Estimated h2SNP was 12.75%, with strong rg with CanUD (rg = 0.82; p = 1.14 × 10−47) and AUD (rg = 0.77; p = 6.36 × 10−78). The OUD-MTAG resulted in a GWAS Nequivalent = 128,748 and 18 independent GWS loci, some mapping to genes or gene regions that have previously been associated with psychiatric or addiction phenotypes. The OUD-MTAG PRS accounted for 3.81% of OUD variance (beta = 0.61;s.e. = 0.066; p = 2.00 × 10−16) compared to 2.41% (beta = 0.45; s.e. = 0.058; p = 2.90 × 10−13) explained by the OUD PRS. The current study identified OUD variant associations at OPRM1, single variant associations with FURIN, and 18 GWS associations in the OUD-MTAG. The genetic architecture of OUD is likely influenced by both OUD-specific loci and loci shared across SUDs.
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    GWAS Meta-Analysis of Suicide Attempt: Identification of 12 Genome-Wide Significant Loci and Implication of Genetic Risks for Specific Health Factors
    (American Psychiatric Association, 2023) Docherty, Anna R.; Mullins, Niamh; Ashley-Koch, Allison E.; Qin, Xuejun; Coleman, Jonathan R. I.; Shabalin, Andrey; Kang, JooEun; Murnyak, Balasz; Wendt, Frank; Adams, Mark; Campos, Adrian I.; DiBlasi, Emily; Fullerton, Janice M.; Kranzler, Henry R.; Bakian, Amanda V.; Monson, Eric T.; Rentería, Miguel E.; Walss-Bass, Consuelo; Andreassen, Ole A.; Behera, Chittaranjan; Bulik, Cynthia M.; Edenberg, Howard J.; Kessler, Ronald C.; Mann, J. John; Nurnberger, John I., Jr.; Pistis, Giorgio; Streit, Fabian; Ursano, Robert J.; Polimanti, Renato; Dennis, Michelle; Garrett, Melanie; Hair, Lauren; Harvey, Philip; Hauser, Elizabeth R.; Hauser, Michael A.; Huffman, Jennifer; Jacobson, Daniel; Madduri, Ravi; McMahon, Benjamin; Oslin, David W.; Trafton, Jodie; Awasthi, Swapnil; Berrettini, Wade H.; Bohus, Martin; Chang, Xiao; Chen, Hsi-Chung; Chen, Wei J.; Christensen, Erik D.; Crow, Scott; Duriez, Philibert; Edwards, Alexis C.; Fernández-Aranda, Fernando; Galfalvy, Hanga; Gandal, Michael; Gorwood, Philip; Guo, Yiran; Hafferty, Jonathan D.; Hakonarson, Hakon; Halmi, Katherine A.; Hishimoto, Akitoyo; Jain, Sonia; Jamain, Stéphane; Jiménez-Murcia, Susana; Johnson, Craig; Kaplan, Allan S.; Kaye, Walter H.; Keel, Pamela K.; Kennedy, James L.; Kim, Minsoo; Klump, Kelly L.; Levey, Daniel F.; Li, Dong; Liao, Shih-Cheng; Lieb, Klaus; Lilenfeld, Lisa; Marshall, Christian R.; Mitchell, James E.; Okazaki, Satoshi; Otsuka, Ikuo; Pinto, Dalila; Powers, Abigail; Ramoz, Nicolas; Ripke, Stephan; Roepke, Stefan; Rozanov, Vsevolod; Scherer, Stephen W.; Schmahl, Christian; Sokolowski, Marcus; Starnawska, Anna; Strober, Michael; Su, Mei-Hsin; Thornton, Laura M.; Treasure, Janet; Ware, Erin B.; Watson, Hunna J.; Witt, Stephanie H.; Woodside, D. Blake; Yilmaz, Zeynep; Zillich, Lea; Adolfsson, Rolf; Agartz, Ingrid; Alda, Martin; Alfredsson, Lars; Appadurai, Vivek; Artigas, María Soler; Van der Auwera, Sandra; Azevedo, M. Helena; Bass, Nicholas; Bau, Claiton H. D.; Baune, Bernhard T.; Bellivier, Frank; Berger, Klaus; Biernacka, Joanna M.; Bigdeli, Tim B.; Binder, Elisabeth B.; Boehnke, Michael; Boks, Marco P.; Braff, David L.; Bryant, Richard; Budde, Monika; Byrne, Enda M.; Cahn, Wiepke; Castelao, Enrique; Cervilla, Jorge A.; Chaumette, Boris; Corvin, Aiden; Craddock, Nicholas; Djurovic, Srdjan; Foo, Jerome C.; Forstner, Andreas J.; Frye, Mark; Gatt, Justine M.; Giegling, Ina; Grabe, Hans J.; Green, Melissa J.; Grevet, Eugenio H.; Grigoroiu-Serbanescu, Maria; Gutierrez, Blanca; Guzman-Parra, Jose; Hamshere, Marian L.; Hartmann, Annette M.; Hauser, Joanna; Heilmann-Heimbach, Stefanie; Hoffmann, Per; Ising, Marcus; Jones, Ian; Jones, Lisa A.; Jonsson, Lina; Kahn, René S.; Kelsoe, John R.; Kendler, Kenneth S.; Kloiber, Stefan; Koenen, Karestan C.; Kogevinas, Manolis; Krebs, Marie-Odile; Landén, Mikael; Leboyer, Marion; Lee, Phil H.; Levinson, Douglas F.; Liao, Calwing; Lissowska, Jolanta; Mayoral, Fermin; McElroy, Susan L.; McGrath, Patrick; McGuffin, Peter; McQuillin, Andrew; Mehta, Divya; Melle, Ingrid; Mitchell, Philip B.; Molina, Esther; Morken, Gunnar; Nievergelt, Caroline; Nöthen, Markus M.; O'Donovan, Michael C.; Ophoff, Roel A.; Owen, Michael J.; Pato, Carlos; Pato, Michele T.; Penninx, Brenda W. J. H.; Potash, James B.; Power, Robert A.; Preisig, Martin; Quested, Digby; Ramos-Quiroga, Josep Antoni; Reif, Andreas; Ribasés, Marta; Richarte, Vanesa; Rietschel, Marcella; Rivera, Margarita; Roberts, Andrea; Roberts, Gloria; Rouleau, Guy A.; Rovaris, Diego L.; Sanders, Alan R.; Schofield, Peter R.; Schulze, Thomas G.; Scott, Laura J.; Serretti, Alessandro; Shi, Jianxin; Sirignano, Lea; Sklar, Pamela; Smeland, Olav B.; Smoller, Jordan W.; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J. S.; Trzaskowski, Maciej; Tsuang, Ming T.; Turecki, Gustavo; Vilar-Ribó, Laura; Vincent, John B.; Völzke, Henry; Walters, James T. R.; Weickert, Cynthia Shannon; Weickert, Thomas W.; Weissman, Myrna M.; Williams, Leanne M.; Wray, Naomi R.; Zai, Clement C.; Agerbo, Esben; Børglum, Anders D.; Breen, Gerome; Demontis, Ditte; Erlangsen, Annette; Gelernter, Joel; Glatt, Stephen J.; Hougaard, David M.; Hwu, Hai-Gwo; Kuo, Po-Hsiu; Lewis, Cathryn M.; Li, Qingqin S.; Liu, Chih-Min; Martin, Nicholas G.; McIntosh, Andrew M.; Medland, Sarah E.; Mors, Ole; Nordentoft, Merete; Olsen, Catherine M.; Porteous, David; Smith, Daniel J.; Stahl, Eli A.; Stein, Murray B.; Wasserman, Danuta; Werge, Thomas; Whiteman, David C.; Willour, Virginia; VA Million Veteran Program (MVP); MVP Suicide Exemplar Workgroup; Suicide Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium; Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium; Bipolar Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium; Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium; Eating Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium; German Borderline Genomics Consortium; Coon, Hilary; Beckham, Jean C.; Kimbrel, Nathan A.; Ruderfer, Douglas M.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Objective: Suicidal behavior is heritable and is a major cause of death worldwide. Two large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) recently discovered and cross-validated genome-wide significant (GWS) loci for suicide attempt (SA). The present study leveraged the genetic cohorts from both studies to conduct the largest GWAS meta-analysis of SA to date. Multi-ancestry and admixture-specific meta-analyses were conducted within groups of significant African, East Asian, and European ancestry admixtures. Methods: This study comprised 22 cohorts, including 43,871 SA cases and 915,025 ancestry-matched controls. Analytical methods across multi-ancestry and individual ancestry admixtures included inverse variance-weighted fixed-effects meta-analyses, followed by gene, gene-set, tissue-set, and drug-target enrichment, as well as summary-data-based Mendelian randomization with brain expression quantitative trait loci data, phenome-wide genetic correlation, and genetic causal proportion analyses. Results: Multi-ancestry and European ancestry admixture GWAS meta-analyses identified 12 risk loci at p values <5×10-8. These loci were mostly intergenic and implicated DRD2, SLC6A9, FURIN, NLGN1, SOX5, PDE4B, and CACNG2. The multi-ancestry SNP-based heritability estimate of SA was 5.7% on the liability scale (SE=0.003, p=5.7×10-80). Significant brain tissue gene expression and drug set enrichment were observed. There was shared genetic variation of SA with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, smoking, and risk tolerance after conditioning SA on both major depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. Genetic causal proportion analyses implicated shared genetic risk for specific health factors. Conclusions: This multi-ancestry analysis of suicide attempt identified several loci contributing to risk and establishes significant shared genetic covariation with clinical phenotypes. These findings provide insight into genetic factors associated with suicide attempt across ancestry admixture populations, in veteran and civilian populations, and in attempt versus death.
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    A large-scale genome-wide association study meta-analysis of cannabis use disorder
    (Elsevier, 2020-12) Johnson, Emma C.; Demontis, Ditte; Thorgeirsson, Thorgeir E.; Walters, Raymond K.; Polimanti, Renato; Hatoum, Alexander S.; Sanchez-Roige, Sandra; Paul, Sarah E.; Wendt, Frank R.; Clarke, Toni-Kim; Lai, Dongbing; Reginsson, Gunnar W.; Zhou, Hang; He, June; Baranger, David A.A.; Gudbjartsson, Daniel F.; Wedow, Robbee; Adkins, Daniel E.; Adkins, Amy E.; Alexander, Jeffry; Bacanu, Silviu-Alin; Bigdeli, Tim B.; Boden, Joseph; Brown, Sandra A.; Bucholz, Kathleen K.; Bybjerg-Grauholm, Jonas; Corley, Robin P.; Degenhardt, Louisa; Dick, Danielle M.; Domingue, Benjamin W.; Fox, Louis; Goate, Alison M.; Gordon, Scott D.; Hack, Laura M.; Hancock, Dana B.; Hartz, Sarah M.; Hickie, Ian B.; Hougaard, David M.; Krauter, Kenneth; Lind, Penelope A.; McClintick, Jeanette N.; McQueen, Matthew B.; Meyers, Jacquelyn L.; Montgomery, Grant W.; Mors, Ole; Mortensen, Preben B.; Nordentoft, Merete; Pearson, John F.; Peterson, Roseann E.; Reynolds, Maureen D.; Rice, John P.; Runarsdottir, Valgerdur; Saccone, Nancy L.; Sherva, Richard; Silberg, Judy L.; Tarter, Ralph E.; Tyrfingsson, Thorarinn; Wall, Tamara L.; Webb, Bradley T.; Werge, Thomas; Wetherill, Leah; Wright, Margaret J.; Zellers, Stephanie; Adams, Mark J.; Bierut, Laura J.; Boardman, Jason D.; Copeland, William E.; Farrer, Lindsay A.; Foroud, Tatiana M.; Gillespie, Nathan A.; Grucza, Richard A.; Mullan Harris, Kathleen; Heath, Andrew C.; Hesselbrock, Victor; Hewitt, John K.; Hopfer, Christian J.; Horwood, John; Iacono, William G.; Johnson, Eric O.; Kendler, Kenneth S.; Kennedy, Martin A.; Kranzler, Henry R.; Madden, Pamela A.F.; Maes, Hermine H.; Maher, Brion S.; Martin, Nicholas G.; McGue, Matthew; McIntosh, Andrew M.; Medland, Sarah E.; Nelson, Elliot C.; Porjesz, Bernice; Riley, Brien P.; Stallings, Michael C.; Vanyukov, Michael M.; Vrieze, Scott; Davis, Lea K.; Bogdan, Ryan; Gelernter, Joel; Edenberg, Howard J.; Stefansson, Kari; Børglum, Anders D.; Agrawal, Arpana; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    Background: Variation in liability to cannabis use disorder has a strong genetic component (estimated twin and family heritability about 50-70%) and is associated with negative outcomes, including increased risk of psychopathology. The aim of the study was to conduct a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify novel genetic variants associated with cannabis use disorder. Methods: To conduct this GWAS meta-analysis of cannabis use disorder and identify associations with genetic loci, we used samples from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Substance Use Disorders working group, iPSYCH, and deCODE (20 916 case samples, 363 116 control samples in total), contrasting cannabis use disorder cases with controls. To examine the genetic overlap between cannabis use disorder and 22 traits of interest (chosen because of previously published phenotypic correlations [eg, psychiatric disorders] or hypothesised associations [eg, chronotype] with cannabis use disorder), we used linkage disequilibrium score regression to calculate genetic correlations. Findings: We identified two genome-wide significant loci: a novel chromosome 7 locus (FOXP2, lead single-nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] rs7783012; odds ratio [OR] 1·11, 95% CI 1·07-1·15, p=1·84 × 10-9) and the previously identified chromosome 8 locus (near CHRNA2 and EPHX2, lead SNP rs4732724; OR 0·89, 95% CI 0·86-0·93, p=6·46 × 10-9). Cannabis use disorder and cannabis use were genetically correlated (rg 0·50, p=1·50 × 10-21), but they showed significantly different genetic correlations with 12 of the 22 traits we tested, suggesting at least partially different genetic underpinnings of cannabis use and cannabis use disorder. Cannabis use disorder was positively genetically correlated with other psychopathology, including ADHD, major depression, and schizophrenia. Interpretation: These findings support the theory that cannabis use disorder has shared genetic liability with other psychopathology, and there is a distinction between genetic liability to cannabis use and cannabis use disorder.
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    Multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of cannabis use disorder yields insight into disease biology and public health implications
    (Springer Nature, 2023) Levey, Daniel F.; Galimberti, Marco; Deak, Joseph D.; Wendt, Frank R.; Bhattacharya, Arjun; Koller, Dora; Harrington, Kelly M.; Quaden, Rachel; Johnson, Emma C.; Gupta, Priya; Biradar, Mahantesh; Lam, Max; Cooke, Megan; Rajagopal, Veera M.; Empke, Stefany L. L.; Zhou, Hang; Nunez, Yaira Z.; Kranzler, Henry R.; Edenberg, Howard J.; Agrawal, Arpana; Smoller, Jordan W.; Lencz, Todd; Hougaard, David M.; Børglum, Anders D.; Demontis, Ditte; Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program; Gaziano, J. Michael; Gandal, Michael J.; Polimanti, Renato; Stein, Murray B.; Gelernter, Joel; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine
    As recreational use of cannabis is being decriminalized in many places and medical use widely sanctioned, there are growing concerns about increases in cannabis use disorder (CanUD), which is associated with numerous medical comorbidities. Here we performed a genome-wide association study of CanUD in the Million Veteran Program (MVP), followed by meta-analysis in 1,054,365 individuals (ncases = 64,314) from four broad ancestries designated by the reference panel used for assignment (European n = 886,025, African n = 123,208, admixed American n = 38,289 and East Asian n = 6,843). Population-specific methods were applied to calculate single nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability within each ancestry. Statistically significant single nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability for CanUD was observed in all but the smallest population (East Asian). We discovered genome-wide significant loci unique to each ancestry: 22 in European, 2 each in African and East Asian, and 1 in admixed American ancestries. A genetically informed causal relationship analysis indicated a possible effect of genetic liability for CanUD on lung cancer risk, suggesting potential unanticipated future medical and psychiatric public health consequences that require further study to disentangle from other known risk factors such as cigarette smoking.
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    Multi-ancestry study of the genetics of problematic alcohol use in over 1 million individuals
    (Springer Nature, 2023) Zhou, Hang; Kember, Rachel L.; Deak, Joseph D.; Xu, Heng; Toikumo, Sylvanus; Yuan, Kai; Lind, Penelope A.; Farajzadeh, Leila; Wang, Lu; Hatoum, Alexander S.; Johnson, Jessica; Lee, Hyunjoon; Mallard, Travis T.; Xu, Jiayi; Johnston, Keira J. A.; Johnson, Emma C.; Galimberti, Marco; Dao, Cecilia; Levey, Daniel F.; Overstreet, Cassie; Byrne, Enda M.; Gillespie, Nathan A.; Gordon, Scott; Hickie, Ian B.; Whitfield, John B.; Xu, Ke; Zhao, Hongyu; Huckins, Laura M.; Davis, Lea K.; Sanchez-Roige, Sandra; Madden, Pamela A. F.; Heath, Andrew C.; Medland, Sarah E.; Martin, Nicholas G.; Ge, Tian; Smoller, Jordan W.; Hougaard, David M.; Børglum, Anders D.; Demontis, Ditte; Krystal, John H.; Gaziano, J. Michael; Edenberg, Howard J.; Agrawal, Arpana; Million Veteran Program; Justice, Amy C.; Stein, Murray B.; Kranzler, Henry R.; Gelernter, Joel; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine
    Problematic alcohol use (PAU), a trait that combines alcohol use disorder and alcohol-related problems assessed with a questionnaire, is a leading cause of death and morbidity worldwide. Here we conducted a large cross-ancestry meta-analysis of PAU in 1,079,947 individuals (European, N = 903,147; African, N = 122,571; Latin American, N = 38,962; East Asian, N = 13,551; and South Asian, N = 1,716 ancestries). We observed a high degree of cross-ancestral similarity in the genetic architecture of PAU and identified 110 independent risk variants in within- and cross-ancestry analyses. Cross-ancestry fine mapping improved the identification of likely causal variants. Prioritizing genes through gene expression and chromatin interaction in brain tissues identified multiple genes associated with PAU. We identified existing medications for potential pharmacological studies by a computational drug repurposing analysis. Cross-ancestry polygenic risk scores showed better performance of association in independent samples than single-ancestry polygenic risk scores. Genetic correlations between PAU and other traits were observed in multiple ancestries, with other substance use traits having the highest correlations. This study advances our knowledge of the genetic etiology of PAU, and these findings may bring possible clinical applicability of genetics insights-together with neuroscience, biology and data science-closer.