Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) are closely related progressive disorders with no available disease-modifying therapy, neuropathologically characterized by intraneuronal a Show more
Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) are closely related progressive disorders with no available disease-modifying therapy, neuropathologically characterized by intraneuronal aggregates of misfolded α-synuclein. To explore the role of DNA methylation changes in PD and DLB pathogenesis, we performed an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of 322 postmortem frontal cortex samples and replicated results in an independent set of 200 donors. We report novel differentially methylated replicating loci associated with Braak Lewy body stage near TMCC2, SFMBT2, AKAP6 and PHYHIP. Differentially methylated probes were independent of known PD genetic risk alleles. Meta-analysis provided suggestive evidence for a differentially methylated locus within the chromosomal region affected by the PD-associated 22q11.2 deletion. Our findings elucidate novel disease pathways in PD and DLB and generate hypotheses for future molecular studies of Lewy body pathology. Show less
Most genetic variants identified in genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of complex traits are thought to act by affecting gene regulation rather than directly altering the protein product. As a co Show more
Most genetic variants identified in genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of complex traits are thought to act by affecting gene regulation rather than directly altering the protein product. As a consequence, the actual genes involved in disease are not necessarily the most proximal to the associated variants. By integrating data from GWAS analyses with those from genetic studies of regulatory variation, it is possible to identify variants pleiotropically associated with both a complex trait and measures of gene regulation. In this study, we used summary-data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR), a method developed to identify variants pleiotropically associated with both complex traits and gene expression, to identify variants associated with complex traits and DNA methylation. We used large DNA methylation quantitative trait locus (mQTL) datasets generated from two different tissues (blood and fetal brain) to prioritize genes for >40 complex traits with robust GWAS data and found considerable overlap with the results of SMR analyses performed with expression QTL (eQTL) data. We identified multiple examples of variable DNA methylation associated with GWAS variants for a range of complex traits, demonstrating the utility of this approach for refining genetic association signals. Show less