Recommended Citation
Washington C, 3rd, Dapas M, Biddanda A, Magnaye KM, Aneas I, Helling BA, Szczesny B, Boorgula MP, Taub MA, Kenny E, Mathias RA, Barnes KC, Khurana Hershey GK, Kercsmar CM, Gereige JD, Makhija M, Gruchalla RS, Gill MA, Liu AH, Rastogi D, Busse W, Gergen PJ, Visness CM, Gold DR, Hartert T, Johnson CC, Lemanske RF, Jr., Martinez FD, Miller RL, Ownby D, Seroogy CM, Wright AL, Zoratti EM, Bacharier LB, Kattan M, O'Connor GT, Wood RA, Nobrega MA, Altman MC, Jackson DJ, Gern JE, McKennan CG, and Ober C. African-specific alleles modify risk for asthma at the 17q12-q21 locus in African Americans. Genome Med 2022; 14(1):112.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-29-2022
Publication Title
Genome Med
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, occurring at higher frequencies and with more severe disease in children with African ancestry.
METHODS: We tested for association with haplotypes at the most replicated and significant childhood-onset asthma locus at 17q12-q21 and asthma in European American and African American children. Following this, we used whole-genome sequencing data from 1060 African American and 100 European American individuals to identify novel variants on a high-risk African American-specific haplotype. We characterized these variants in silico using gene expression and ATAC-seq data from airway epithelial cells, functional annotations from ENCODE, and promoter capture (pc)Hi-C maps in airway epithelial cells. Candidate causal variants were then assessed for correlation with asthma-associated phenotypes in African American children and adults.
RESULTS: Our studies revealed nine novel African-specific common variants, enriched on a high-risk asthma haplotype, which regulated the expression of GSDMA in airway epithelial cells and were associated with features of severe asthma. Using ENCODE annotations, ATAC-seq, and pcHi-C, we narrowed the associations to two candidate causal variants that are associated with features of T2 low severe asthma.
CONCLUSIONS: Previously unknown genetic variation at the 17q12-21 childhood-onset asthma locus contributes to asthma severity in individuals with African ancestries. We suggest that many other population-specific variants that have not been discovered in GWAS contribute to the genetic risk for asthma and other common diseases.
Medical Subject Headings
African Americans; Alleles; Asthma; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genome-Wide Association Study; Humans; Neoplasm Proteins; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Pore Forming Cytotoxic Proteins
PubMed ID
36175932
Volume
14
Issue
1
First Page
112
Last Page
112
