Crowdsourcing Genetic Data Yields Discovery of DNA loci associated with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in European Descendants

Feeds:: Posts; Comments

« New York Times Articles on Immunotherapy and Cancer Treatment Options

COMBAT study: Combination of BL-8040 and KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for Pancreatic Cancer: Collaboration Agreement Merck, BioLineRx and MD Anderson Cancer Center »

Crowdsourcing Genetic Data Yields Discovery of DNA loci associated with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in European Descendants

August 9, 2016 by kellyperlman

Crowdsourcing Genetic Data Yields Discovery of DNA loci associated with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in European Descendants

Reporter: Kelly Perlman, Life Sciences Student and Research Assistant, McGill University

UPDATED on 11/24/2019

Can AI help diagnose depression? It’s a long shot

At the moment, machine intelligence is just as subjective as human intelligence

Alejandra Canales

https://www.salon.com/2019/11/23/can-ai-help-diagnose-depression-its-a-long-shot_partner/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Researchers from Pfizer Global Research and Development, 23andMe, and the Massachusetts General Hospital have published a study in Nature Genetics, pinpointing 15 genetic loci associated with the risk of developing major depressive disorder (MDD) in individuals of European ancestry. Evidence from previous research suggests that MDD is heritable, but the details of the specific gene correlates are unclear. The identification of loci where single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to MDD exist could provide better insight into the neurobiology of depression, and therefore better treatment options.

23andMe, a private biotechnology company situated in California, offers a DNA sequencing service in which consumers send in a saliva swab for testing, and later receive a report listing the findings of the analysis related to ancestry, physical and behavioral traits, along with risk of inheriting certain diseases. The participants of this study had agreed to provide the results of their genetic testing for scientific research.

The results of 75,607 participants with self-reported diagnoses of depression were compared to the results of 231,747 participants reporting having never experienced depression. This data was combined with the results of previously published MDD genome-wide association studies (GWAS). To test the whether these results could be replicated, another set of results from 23andMe was analyzed, in which there were 45,773 MDD subjects, and 106,354 controls.

After the joint analysis, 17 SNPs were identified at 15 different loci. Tissue and gene enrichment assays showed that the genes that were over-expressed in the CNS were related to functions including neurodevelopment, histone methylation, neurogenesis and synaptic modification.

The team then created a weighted genetic risk score (GRS) in which they compared the 17 SNPs with factors including medication use, comorbid diseases and behavioral phenotypes, all of which were correlated with the GRS. Of note, the GRS was very highly correlated with age of onset of MDD.

The crowdsourcing of genetic data proves to be an efficient and powerful tool for large-scale MDD studies. Pooling large subject databases together is essential in order to account for the heterogeneous nature of the disease. Despite not being able to precisely assess each subject’s disease phenotype, scientists can make more rapid headway by collaborating with biotechnology companies in the quest to better understand the biological mechanisms of depression. Ron Perlis, M.D., M.Sc., of the Massachusetts General Hospital and co-author of this paper explained that “finding genes associated with depression should help make clear that this is a brain disease, which we hope will decrease the stigma still associated with these kinds of illnesses”.

Details on specific significant genes:

http://www.genecards.org/cgi-bin/carddisp.pl?gene=OLFM4

http://www.genecards.org/cgi-bin/carddisp.pl?gene=TMEM161B

http://www.genecards.org/cgi-bin/carddisp.pl?gene=MEF2C

http://www.genecards.org/cgi-bin/carddisp.pl?gene=MEIS2

http://www.genecards.org/cgi-bin/carddisp.pl?gene=TMCO5A

http://www.genecards.org/cgi-bin/carddisp.pl?gene=NEGR1

SOURCES

Hyde, C. L., Nagle, M. W., Tian, C., Chen, X., Paciga, S. A., Wendland, J. R., . . . Winslow, A. R. (2016). Identification of 15 genetic loci associated with risk of major depression in individuals of European descent. Nature Genetics Nat Genet. doi:10.1038/ng.3623

Major Depressive Disorder Loci Discovered in Large GWAS Enabled by 23andMe Participants’ Data. (2016, August 01). Retrieved August 09, 2016, from https://www.genomeweb.com/microarrays-multiplexing/major-depressive-disorder-loci-discovered-large-gwas-enabled-23andme