@article {6135, title = {Common folate gene variant, MTHFR C677T, is associated with brain structure in two independent cohorts of people with mild cognitive impairment.}, journal = {Neuroimage Clin}, volume = {1}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {179-87}, abstract = {

A commonly carried C677T polymorphism in a folate-related gene, MTHFR, is associated with higher plasma homocysteine, a well-known mediator of neuronal damage and brain atrophy. As homocysteine promotes brain atrophy, we set out to discover whether people carrying the C677T MTHFR polymorphism which increases homocysteine, might also show systematic differences in brain structure. Using tensor-based morphometry, we tested this association in 359 elderly Caucasian subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (mean age: 75~{\textpm}~7.1~years) scanned with brain MRI and genotyped as part of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. We carried out a replication study in an independent, non-overlapping sample of 51 elderly Caucasian subjects with MCI (mean age: 76~{\textpm}~5.5~years), scanned with brain MRI and genotyped for MTHFR, as part of the Cardiovascular Health Study. At each voxel in the brain, we tested to see where regional volume differences were associated with carrying one or more MTHFR {\textquoteright}T{\textquoteright} alleles. In ADNI subjects, carriers of the MTHFR risk allele had detectable brain volume deficits, in the white matter, of up to 2-8\% per risk T allele locally at baseline and showed accelerated brain atrophy of 0.5-1.5\% per T allele at 1~year follow-up, after adjusting for age and sex. We replicated these brain volume deficits of up to 5-12\% per MTHFR T allele in the independent cohort of CHS subjects. As expected, the associations weakened after controlling for homocysteine levels, which the risk gene affects. The MTHFR risk variant may thus promote brain atrophy by elevating homocysteine levels. This study aims to investigate the spatially detailed effects of this MTHFR polymorphism on brain structure in 3D, pointing to a causal pathway that may promote homocysteine-mediated brain atrophy in elderly people with MCI.

}, issn = {2213-1582}, doi = {10.1016/j.nicl.2012.09.012}, author = {Rajagopalan, Priya and Jahanshad, Neda and Stein, Jason L and Hua, Xue and Madsen, Sarah K and Kohannim, Omid and Hibar, Derrek P and Toga, Arthur W and Jack, Clifford R and Saykin, Andrew J and Green, Robert C and Weiner, Michael W and Bis, Joshua C and Kuller, Lewis H and Riverol, Mario and Becker, James T and Lopez, Oscar L and Thompson, Paul M} } @article {6617, title = {Gene-wide analysis detects two new susceptibility genes for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e94661}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease is a common debilitating dementia with known heritability, for which 20 late onset susceptibility loci have been identified, but more remain to be discovered. This study sought to identify new susceptibility genes, using an alternative gene-wide analytical approach which tests for patterns of association within genes, in the powerful genome-wide association dataset of the International Genomics of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Project Consortium, comprising over 7 m genotypes from 25,580 Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s cases and 48,466 controls.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In addition to earlier reported genes, we detected genome-wide significant loci on chromosomes 8 (TP53INP1, pā€Š=ā€Š1.4{\texttimes}10-6) and 14 (IGHV1-67 pā€Š=ā€Š7.9{\texttimes}10-8) which indexed novel susceptibility loci.

SIGNIFICANCE: The additional genes identified in this study, have an array of functions previously implicated in Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease, including aspects of energy metabolism, protein degradation and the immune system and add further weight to these pathways as potential therapeutic targets in Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.

}, keywords = {Alzheimer Disease, Carrier Proteins, Case-Control Studies, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heat-Shock Proteins, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0094661}, author = {Escott-Price, Valentina and Bellenguez, C{\'e}line and Wang, Li-San and Choi, Seung-Hoan and Harold, Denise and Jones, Lesley and Holmans, Peter and Gerrish, Amy and Vedernikov, Alexey and Richards, Alexander and DeStefano, Anita L and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla A and Naj, Adam C and Sims, Rebecca and Jun, Gyungah and Bis, Joshua C and Beecham, Gary W and Grenier-Boley, Benjamin and Russo, Giancarlo and Thornton-Wells, Tricia A and Denning, Nicola and Smith, Albert V and Chouraki, Vincent and Thomas, Charlene and Ikram, M Arfan and Zelenika, Diana and Vardarajan, Badri N and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Lin, Chiao-Feng and Schmidt, Helena and Kunkle, Brian and Dunstan, Melanie L and Vronskaya, Maria and Johnson, Andrew D and Ruiz, Agustin and Bihoreau, Marie-Th{\'e}r{\`e}se and Reitz, Christiane and Pasquier, Florence and Hollingworth, Paul and Hanon, Olivier and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Buxbaum, Joseph D and Campion, Dominique and Crane, Paul K and Baldwin, Clinton and Becker, Tim and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Cruchaga, Carlos and Craig, David and Amin, Najaf and Berr, Claudine and Lopez, Oscar L and De Jager, Philip L and Deramecourt, Vincent and Johnston, Janet A and Evans, Denis and Lovestone, Simon and Letenneur, Luc and Hernandez, Isabel and Rubinsztein, David C and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Sleegers, Kristel and Goate, Alison M and Fi{\'e}vet, Nathalie and Huentelman, Matthew J and Gill, Michael and Brown, Kristelle and Kamboh, M Ilyas and Keller, Lina and Barberger-Gateau, Pascale and McGuinness, Bernadette and Larson, Eric B and Myers, Amanda J and Dufouil, Carole and Todd, Stephen and Wallon, David and Love, Seth and Rogaeva, Ekaterina and Gallacher, John and George-Hyslop, Peter St and Clarimon, Jordi and Lleo, Alberto and Bayer, Anthony and Tsuang, Debby W and Yu, Lei and Tsolaki, Magda and Boss{\`u}, Paola and Spalletta, Gianfranco and Proitsi, Petra and Collinge, John and Sorbi, Sandro and Garcia, Florentino Sanchez and Fox, Nick C and Hardy, John and Naranjo, Maria Candida Deniz and Bosco, Paolo and Clarke, Robert and Brayne, Carol and Galimberti, Daniela and Scarpini, Elio and Bonuccelli, Ubaldo and Mancuso, Michelangelo and Siciliano, Gabriele and Moebus, Susanne and Mecocci, Patrizia and Zompo, Maria Del and Maier, Wolfgang and Hampel, Harald and Pilotto, Alberto and Frank-Garc{\'\i}a, Ana and Panza, Francesco and Solfrizzi, Vincenzo and Caffarra, Paolo and Nacmias, Benedetta and Perry, William and Mayhaus, Manuel and Lannfelt, Lars and Hakonarson, Hakon and Pichler, Sabrina and Carrasquillo, Minerva M and Ingelsson, Martin and Beekly, Duane and Alvarez, Victoria and Zou, Fanggeng and Valladares, Otto and Younkin, Steven G and Coto, Eliecer and Hamilton-Nelson, Kara L and Gu, Wei and Razquin, Cristina and Pastor, Pau and Mateo, Ignacio and Owen, Michael J and Faber, Kelley M and Jonsson, Palmi V and Combarros, Onofre and O{\textquoteright}Donovan, Michael C and Cantwell, Laura B and Soininen, Hilkka and Blacker, Deborah and Mead, Simon and Mosley, Thomas H and Bennett, David A and Harris, Tamara B and Fratiglioni, Laura and Holmes, Clive and de Bruijn, Renee F A G and Passmore, Peter and Montine, Thomas J and Bettens, Karolien and Rotter, Jerome I and Brice, Alexis and Morgan, Kevin and Foroud, Tatiana M and Kukull, Walter A and Hannequin, Didier and Powell, John F and Nalls, Michael A and Ritchie, Karen and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Kauwe, John S K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Riemenschneider, Matthias and Boada, Merce and Hiltunen, Mikko and Martin, Eden R and Schmidt, Reinhold and Rujescu, Dan and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Mayeux, Richard and Tzourio, Christophe and Hofman, Albert and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Graff, Caroline and Psaty, Bruce M and Haines, Jonathan L and Lathrop, Mark and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Launer, Lenore J and Van Broeckhoven, Christine and Farrer, Lindsay A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ramirez, Alfredo and Seshadri, Sudha and Schellenberg, Gerard D and Amouyel, Philippe and Williams, Julie} }