Genome-wide Analysis of Protein-Coding Variants in Leprosy.
Abstract
Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have greatly advanced our understanding on the contribution of common non-coding variants to leprosy susceptibility, protein-coding variants have not been systematically investigated. We carried out a three-stage genome-wide association study of protein-coding variants in 7,048 leprosy patients and 14,398 healthy controls of Han Chinese. Seven to our knowledge previously unreported coding variants at exome-wide significance were discovered, including two rare variants: rs145562243 in NCKIPSD (P = 1.71 × 10(-9), odds ratio (OR) = 4.35) and rs149308743 in CARD9 (P = 2.09 × 10(-8), OR = 4.75); three low frequency variants: rs76418789 in IL23R (P = 1.03 × 10(-10), OR = 1.36), rs146466242 in FLG (P = 3.39 × 10(-12), OR = 1.45), and rs55882956 in TYK2 (P = 1.04 × 10(-6), OR = 1.30); and two common variants: rs780668 in SLC29A3 (P = 2.17 × 10(-9), OR = 1.14) and rs181206 in IL27 (P = 1.08 × 10(-7), OR = 0.83). Discovered protein-coding variants, particularly low-frequency and rare ones, revealed involvement of skin barrier and endocytosis/phagocytosis/autophagy, besides known innate and adaptive immunity, in the pathogenesis of leprosy, highlighting the merits of protein coding variant studies for complex diseases. J Invest Dermatol 2017 Aug 22 [Epub ahead of print]