@article {1305, title = {Genome-wide association study for serum urate concentrations and gout among African Americans identifies genomic risk loci and a novel URAT1 loss-of-function allele.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {20}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Oct 15}, pages = {4056-68}, abstract = {

Serum urate concentrations are highly heritable and elevated serum urate is a key risk factor for gout. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of serum urate in African American (AA) populations are lacking. We conducted a meta-analysis of GWAS of serum urate levels and gout among 5820 AA and a large candidate gene study among 6890 AA and 21 708 participants of European ancestry (EA) within the Candidate Gene Association Resource Consortium. Findings were tested for replication among 1996 independent AA individuals, and evaluated for their association among 28 283 EA participants of the CHARGE Consortium. Functional studies were conducted using (14)C-urate transport assays in mammalian Chinese hamster ovary cells. In the discovery GWAS of serum urate, three loci achieved genome-wide significance (P< 5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)): a novel locus near SGK1/SLC2A12 on chromosome 6 (rs9321453, P= 1.0 {\texttimes} 10(-9)), and two loci previously identified in EA participants, SLC2A9 (P= 3.8 {\texttimes} 10(-32)) and SLC22A12 (P= 2.1 {\texttimes} 10(-10)). A novel rare non-synonymous variant of large effect size in SLC22A12, rs12800450 (minor allele frequency 0.01, G65W), was identified and replicated (beta -1.19 mg/dl, P= 2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-16)). (14)C-urate transport assays showed reduced urate transport for the G65W URAT1 mutant. Finally, in analyses of 11 loci previously associated with serum urate in EA individuals, 10 of 11 lead single-nucleotide polymorphisms showed direction-consistent association with urate among AA. In summary, we identified and replicated one novel locus in association with serum urate levels and experimentally characterize the novel G65W variant in URAT1 as a functional allele. Our data support the importance of multi-ethnic GWAS in the identification of novel risk loci as well as functional variants.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Animals, CHO Cells, Cricetinae, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Gout, Humans, Loss of Heterozygosity, Male, Middle Aged, Organic Anion Transporters, Organic Cation Transport Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Uric Acid, Young Adult}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddr307}, author = {Tin, Adrienne and Woodward, Owen M and Kao, Wen Hong Linda and Liu, Ching-Ti and Lu, Xiaoning and Nalls, Michael A and Shriner, Daniel and Semmo, Mariam and Akylbekova, Ermeg L and Wyatt, Sharon B and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Yang, Qiong and Zonderman, Alan B and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Palmer, Cameron and Meng, Yan and Reilly, Muredach and Shlipak, Michael G and Siscovick, David and Evans, Michele K and Rotimi, Charles N and Flessner, Michael F and K{\"o}ttgen, Michael and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fox, Caroline S and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna} } @article {7928, title = {Large-scale whole-exome sequencing association studies identify rare functional variants influencing serum urate levels.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 10 12}, pages = {4228}, abstract = {

Elevated serum urate levels can cause gout, an excruciating disease with suboptimal treatment. Previous GWAS identified common variants with modest effects on serum urate. Here we report large-scale whole-exome sequencing association studies of serum urate and kidney function among <=19,517 European ancestry and African-American individuals. We identify aggregate associations of low-frequency damaging variants in the urate transporters SLC22A12 (URAT1; p = 1.3 {\texttimes} 10) and SLC2A9 (p = 4.5 {\texttimes} 10). Gout risk in rare SLC22A12 variant carriers is halved (OR = 0.5, p = 4.9 {\texttimes} 10). Selected rare variants in SLC22A12 are validated in transport studies, confirming three as loss-of-function (R325W, R405C, and T467M) and illustrating the therapeutic potential of the new URAT1-blocker lesinurad. In SLC2A9, mapping of rare variants of large effects onto the predicted protein structure reveals new residues that may affect urate binding. These findings provide new insights into the genetic architecture of serum urate, and highlight molecular targets in SLC22A12 and SLC2A9 for lowering serum urate and preventing gout.

}, keywords = {Exome, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative, Humans, Kidney Function Tests, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Organic Anion Transporters, Organic Cation Transport Proteins, Protein Structure, Secondary, Uric Acid}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06620-4}, author = {Tin, Adrienne and Li, Yong and Brody, Jennifer A and Nutile, Teresa and Chu, Audrey Y and Huffman, Jennifer E and Yang, Qiong and Chen, Ming-Huei and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Mace, Aurelien and Liu, Jun and Demirkan, Ayse and Sorice, Rossella and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Swen, Melody and Yu, Bing and Ghasemi, Sahar and Teumer, Alexanda and Vollenweider, Peter and Ciullo, Marina and Li, Meng and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Kraaij, Robert and Amin, Najaf and van Rooij, Jeroen and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Dehghan, Abbas and McKnight, Barbara and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Morrison, Alanna and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Fox, Caroline S and Woodward, Owen M and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna} } @article {9006, title = {Epigenome-wide association study of serum urate reveals insights into urate co-regulation and the SLC2A9 locus.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 12 09}, pages = {7173}, abstract = {

Elevated serum urate levels, a complex trait and major risk factor for incident gout, are~correlated with cardiometabolic traits via incompletely understood mechanisms. DNA methylation in whole blood captures genetic and environmental influences and is assessed in transethnic meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of serum urate (discovery, n = 12,474, replication, n = 5522). The 100 replicated, epigenome-wide significant (p < 1.1E-7) CpGs explain 11.6\% of the serum urate variance. At SLC2A9, the serum urate locus with the largest effect in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), five CpGs are associated with SLC2A9 gene expression. Four CpGs at SLC2A9 have significant causal effects on serum urate levels and/or gout, and two of these partly mediate the effects of urate-associated GWAS variants. In other genes, including SLC7A11 and PHGDH, 17 urate-associated CpGs are associated with conditions defining metabolic syndrome, suggesting that these CpGs may represent a blood DNA methylation signature of cardiometabolic risk factors. This study demonstrates that EWAS can provide new insights into GWAS loci and the correlation of serum urate with other complex traits.

}, keywords = {Amino Acid Transport System y+, Cohort Studies, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Epigenome, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative, Gout, Humans, Male, Uric Acid}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-27198-4}, author = {Tin, Adrienne and Schlosser, Pascal and Matias-Garcia, Pamela R and Thio, Chris H L and Joehanes, Roby and Liu, Hongbo and Yu, Zhi and Weihs, Antoine and Hoppmann, Anselm and Grundner-Culemann, Franziska and Min, Josine L and Kuhns, Victoria L Halperin and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Agyemang, Charles and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Aziz, Nasir A and Baccarelli, Andrea and Bochud, Murielle and Brenner, Hermann and Bressler, Jan and Breteler, Monique M B and Carmeli, Cristian and Chaker, Layal and Coresh, Josef and Corre, Tanguy and Correa, Adolfo and Cox, Simon R and Delgado, Graciela E and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Ekici, Arif B and Endlich, Karlhans and Floyd, James S and Fraszczyk, Eliza and Gao, Xu and G{\`a}o, Xin and Gelber, Allan C and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Ghasemi, Sahar and Gieger, Christian and Greenland, Philip and Grove, Megan L and Harris, Sarah E and Hemani, Gibran and Henneman, Peter and Herder, Christian and Horvath, Steve and Hou, Lifang and Hurme, Mikko A and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kasela, Silva and Kleber, Marcus E and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Ladd-Acosta, Christine and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lind, Lars and Liu, Dan and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Lorkowski, Stefan and Lu, Ake T and Marioni, Riccardo E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCartney, Daniel L and Meeks, Karlijn A C and Milani, Lili and Mishra, Pashupati P and Nauck, Matthias and Nowak, Christoph and Peters, Annette and Prokisch, Holger and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Ratliff, Scott M and Reiner, Alex P and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Schwartz, Joel and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stocker, Hannah R and Stringhini, Silvia and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swenson, Brenton R and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Venema, Andrea and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Winkelmann, Juliane and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Yinan and Loh, Marie and Snieder, Harold and Waldenberger, Melanie and Levy, Daniel and Akilesh, Shreeram and Woodward, Owen M and Susztak, Katalin and Teumer, Alexander and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna} }