Common genetic variation and susceptibility to par... [Brain. 2010] - PubMed result

Brain. 2010 Jun 3. [Epub ahead of print]

Common genetic variation and susceptibility to partial epilepsies: a genome-wide association study.
Kasperaviciute D, Catarino CB, Heinzen EL, Depondt C, Cavalleri GL, Caboclo LO, Tate SK, Jamnadas-Khoda J, Chinthapalli K, Clayton LM, Shianna KV, Radtke RA, Mikati MA, Gallentine WB, Husain AM, Alhusaini S, Leppert D, Middleton LT, Gibson RA, Johnson MR, Matthews PM, Hosford D, Heuser K, Amos L, Ortega M, Zumsteg D, Wieser HG, Steinhoff BJ, Krämer G, Hansen J, Dorn T, Kantanen AM, Gjerstad L, Peuralinna T, Hernandez DG, Eriksson KJ, Kälviäinen RK, Doherty CP, Wood NW, Pandolfo M, Duncan JS, Sander JW, Delanty N, Goldstein DB, Sisodiya SM.

1 Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, UK.

Abstract
Partial epilepsies have a substantial heritability. However, the actual genetic causes are largely unknown. In contrast to many other common diseases for which genetic association-studies have successfully revealed common variants associated with disease risk, the role of common variation in partial epilepsies has not yet been explored in a well-powered study. We undertook a genome-wide association-study to identify common variants which influence risk for epilepsy shared amongst partial epilepsy syndromes, in 3445 patients and 6935 controls of European ancestry. We did not identify any genome-wide significant association. A few single nucleotide polymorphisms may warrant further investigation. We exclude common genetic variants with effect sizes above a modest 1.3 odds ratio for a single variant as contributors to genetic susceptibility shared across the partial epilepsies. We show that, at best, common genetic variation can only have a modest role in predisposition to the partial epilepsies when considered across syndromes in Europeans. The genetic architecture of the partial epilepsies is likely to be very complex, reflecting genotypic and phenotypic heterogeneity. Larger meta-analyses are required to identify variants of smaller effect sizes (odds ratio <1.3) or syndrome-specific variants. Further, our results suggest research efforts should also be directed towards identifying the multiple rare variants likely to account for at least part of the heritability of the partial epilepsies. Data emerging from genome-wide association-studies will be valuable during the next serious challenge of interpreting all the genetic variation emerging from whole-genome sequencing studies.

PMID: 20522523 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]Free Article
Common genetic variation and susceptibility to par... [Brain. 2010] - PubMed result