@article {6586, title = {Extreme deep white matter hyperintensity volumes are associated with African American race.}, journal = {Cerebrovasc Dis}, volume = {37}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {244-50}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: African Americans (AAs) have a higher prevalence of extreme ischemic white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) than do European Americans (EAs) based on the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) score. Ischemic white matter disease, limited to the deep white matter, may be biologically distinct from disease in other regions and may reflect a previously observed trend toward an increased risk of subcortical lacunar infarcts in AAs. We hypothesized that extreme deep WMH volume (DWMV) or periventricular volume (PV) may also have a higher prevalence in AAs. Thus, we studied extreme CHS scores and extreme DWMV and PV in a healthy population enriched for cardiovascular disease risk factors.

METHODS: We imaged the brains of 593 subjects who were first-degree relatives of probands with early onset coronary disease prior to 60 years of age. WMHs were manually delineated on 3-tesla cranial MRI by a trained radiology reader; the location and volume of lesions were characterized using automated software. DWMV and PV were measured directly with automated software, and the CHS score was determined by a neuroradiologist. Volumes were characterized as being in the upper 25\% versus lower 75\% of total lesion volume. Volumes in the upper versus the remaining quartiles were examined for AA versus EA race using multiple logistic regression (generalized estimating equations adjusted for family relatedness) and adjusted for major vascular disease risk factors including age >=55 years versus <55, sex, current smoking, obesity, hypertension, diabetes and low-density lipoprotein >160 mg/dl.

RESULTS: Participants were 58\% women and 37\% AAs, with a mean age of 51.5 {\textpm} 11.0 years (range, 29-74 years). AAs had significantly higher odds of having extreme DWMVs (odds ratio, OR, 1.8; 95\% confidence interval, CI, 1.2-2.9; p = 0.0076) independently of age, sex, hypertension and all other risk factors. AAs also had significantly higher odds of having extreme CHS scores >=3 (OR, 1.3; 95\% CI, 1.1-3.6; p = 0.025). Extreme PV was not significantly associated with AA race (OR, 1.3; 95\% CI, 0.81-2.1; p = 0.26).

CONCLUSIONS: AAs from families with early-onset cardiovascular disease are more likely to have extreme DWMVs (a subclinical form of cerebrovascular disease) and an extreme CHS score, but not extreme PV, independently of age and other cardiovascular disease risk factors. These findings suggest that this AA population is at an increased risk for DWMV and may be at an increased risk for future subcortical stroke. Longitudinal studies are required to see if DWMV is predictive of symptomatic subcortical strokes in this population.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Age Factors, Aged, Cerebrovascular Disorders, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Prevalence, Risk Factors, White Matter}, issn = {1421-9786}, doi = {10.1159/000358117}, author = {Nyquist, Paul A and Bilgel, Murat S and Gottesman, Rebecca and Yanek, Lisa R and Moy, Taryn F and Becker, Lewis C and Cuzzocreo, Jennifer and Prince, Jerry and Yousem, David M and Becker, Diane M and Kral, Brian G and Vaidya, Dhananjay} } @article {7796, title = {Exome Chip Analysis Identifies Low-Frequency and Rare Variants in for White Matter Hyperintensities on Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging.}, journal = {Stroke}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jul 12}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) on brain magnetic resonance imaging are typical signs of cerebral small vessel disease and may indicate various preclinical, age-related neurological disorders, such as stroke. Though WMH are highly heritable, known common variants explain a small proportion of the WMH variance. The contribution of low-frequency/rare coding variants to WMH burden has not been explored.

METHODS: In the discovery sample we recruited 20 719 stroke/dementia-free adults from 13 population-based cohort studies within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium, among which 17 790 were of European ancestry and 2929 of African ancestry. We genotyped these participants at ≈250 000 mostly exonic variants with Illumina HumanExome BeadChip arrays. We performed ethnicity-specific linear regression on rank-normalized WMH in each study separately, which were then combined in meta-analyses to test for association with single variants and genes aggregating the effects of putatively functional low-frequency/rare variants. We then sought replication of the top findings in 1192 adults (European ancestry) with whole exome/genome sequencing data from 2 independent studies.

RESULTS: At 17q25, we confirmed the association of multiple common variants in , , and (<6{\texttimes}10). We also identified a novel association with 2 low-frequency nonsynonymous variants in (lead, rs34136221; =4.5{\texttimes}10) partially independent of known common signal (=1.4{\texttimes}10). We further identified a locus at 2q33 containing common variants in , , and (lead, rs2351524; =1.9{\texttimes}10). Although our novel findings were not replicated because of limited power and possible differences in study design, meta-analysis of the discovery and replication samples yielded stronger association for the 2 low-frequency variants (=2.8{\texttimes}10).

CONCLUSIONS: Both common and low-frequency/rare functional variants influence WMH. Larger replication and experimental follow-up are essential to confirm our findings and uncover the biological causal mechanisms of age-related WMH.

}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.118.020689}, author = {Jian, Xueqiu and Satizabal, Claudia L and Smith, Albert V and Wittfeld, Katharina and Bis, Joshua C and Smith, Jennifer A and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Nho, Kwangsik and Hofer, Edith and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Nyquist, Paul A and Mishra, Aniket and Adams, Hieab H H and Li, Shuo and Teumer, Alexander and Zhao, Wei and Freedman, Barry I and Saba, Yasaman and Yanek, Lisa R and Chauhan, Ganesh and van Buchem, Mark A and Cushman, Mary and Royle, Natalie A and Bryan, R Nick and Niessen, Wiro J and Windham, Beverly G and DeStefano, Anita L and Habes, Mohamad and Heckbert, Susan R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Lewis, Cora E and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Maillard, Pauline and Mathias, Rasika A and Homuth, Georg and Vald{\'e}s-Hern{\'a}ndez, Maria Del C and Divers, Jasmin and Beiser, Alexa S and Langner, S{\"o}nke and Rice, Kenneth M and Bastin, Mark E and Yang, Qiong and Maldjian, Joseph A and Starr, John M and Sidney, Stephen and Risacher, Shannon L and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Gudnason, Vilmundur G and Nauck, Matthias and Rotter, Jerome I and Schreiner, Pamela J and Boerwinkle, Eric and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Mazoyer, Bernard and von Sarnowski, Bettina and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Levy, Daniel and Sigurdsson, Sigurdur and Vernooij, Meike W and Turner, Stephen T and Schmidt, Reinhold and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Psaty, Bruce M and Mosley, Thomas H and DeCarli, Charles S and Saykin, Andrew J and Bowden, Donald W and Becker, Diane M and Deary, Ian J and Schmidt, Helena and Kardia, Sharon L R and Ikram, M Arfan and Debette, Stephanie and Grabe, Hans J and Longstreth, W T and Seshadri, Sudha and Launer, Lenore J and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {7849, title = {Genome-wide association study of 23,500 individuals identifies 7 loci associated with brain ventricular volume.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep 26}, pages = {3945}, abstract = {

The volume of the lateral ventricles (LV) increases with age and their abnormal enlargement is a key feature of several neurological and psychiatric diseases. Although lateral ventricular volume is heritable, a comprehensive investigation of its genetic determinants is lacking. In this meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of 23,533 healthy middle-aged to elderly individuals from 26 population-based cohorts, we identify 7 genetic loci associated with LV volume. These loci map to chromosomes 3q28, 7p22.3, 10p12.31, 11q23.1, 12q23.3, 16q24.2, and 22q13.1 and implicate pathways related to tau pathology, S1P signaling, and cytoskeleton organization. We also report a significant genetic overlap between the thalamus and LV volumes (ρ = -0.59, p-value = 3.14 {\texttimes} 10), suggesting that these brain structures may share a common biology. These genetic associations of LV volume provide insights into brain morphology.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06234-w}, author = {Vojinovic, Dina and Adams, Hieab H and Jian, Xueqiu and Yang, Qiong and Smith, Albert Vernon and Bis, Joshua C and Teumer, Alexander and Scholz, Markus and Armstrong, Nicola J and Hofer, Edith and Saba, Yasaman and Luciano, Michelle and Bernard, Manon and Trompet, Stella and Yang, Jingyun and Gillespie, Nathan A and van der Lee, Sven J and Neumann, Alexander and Ahmad, Shahzad and Andreassen, Ole A and Ames, David and Amin, Najaf and Arfanakis, Konstantinos and Bastin, Mark E and Becker, Diane M and Beiser, Alexa S and Beyer, Frauke and Brodaty, Henry and Bryan, R Nick and B{\"u}low, Robin and Dale, Anders M and De Jager, Philip L and Deary, Ian J and DeCarli, Charles and Fleischman, Debra A and Gottesman, Rebecca F and van der Grond, Jeroen and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Homuth, Georg and Knopman, David S and Kwok, John B and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Shuo and Loeffler, Markus and Lopez, Oscar L and Maillard, Pauline and El Marroun, Hanan and Mather, Karen A and Mosley, Thomas H and Muetzel, Ryan L and Nauck, Matthias and Nyquist, Paul A and Panizzon, Matthew S and Pausova, Zdenka and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Ken and Rotter, Jerome I and Royle, Natalie and Satizabal, Claudia L and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schofield, Peter R and Schreiner, Pamela J and Sidney, Stephen and Stott, David J and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vald{\'e}s Hern{\'a}ndez, Maria C and Vernooij, Meike W and Wen, Wei and White, Tonya and Witte, A Veronica and Wittfeld, Katharina and Wright, Margaret J and Yanek, Lisa R and Tiemeier, Henning and Kremen, William S and Bennett, David A and Jukema, J Wouter and Paus, Tom{\'a}{\v s} and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Schmidt, Helena and Sachdev, Perminder S and Villringer, Arno and Grabe, Hans J{\"o}rgen and Longstreth, W T and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Launer, Lenore J and Seshadri, Sudha and Ikram, M Arfan and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {8206, title = {Genetic architecture of subcortical brain structures in 38,851 individuals.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {51}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov}, pages = {1624-1636}, abstract = {

Subcortical brain structures are integral to motion, consciousness, emotions and learning. We identified common genetic variation related to the volumes of the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, brainstem, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, putamen and thalamus, using genome-wide association analyses in almost 40,000 individuals from CHARGE, ENIGMA and UK Biobank. We show that variability in subcortical volumes is heritable, and identify 48 significantly associated loci (40 novel at the time of analysis). Annotation of these loci by utilizing gene expression, methylation and neuropathological data identified 199 genes putatively implicated in neurodevelopment, synaptic signaling, axonal transport, apoptosis, inflammation/infection and susceptibility to neurological disorders. This set of genes is significantly enriched for Drosophila orthologs associated with neurodevelopmental phenotypes, suggesting evolutionarily conserved mechanisms. Our findings uncover novel biology and potential drug targets underlying brain development and disease.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-019-0511-y}, author = {Satizabal, Claudia L and Adams, Hieab H H and Hibar, Derrek P and White, Charles C and Knol, Maria J and Stein, Jason L and Scholz, Markus and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Jahanshad, Neda and Roshchupkin, Gennady V and Smith, Albert V and Bis, Joshua C and Jian, Xueqiu and Luciano, Michelle and Hofer, Edith and Teumer, Alexander and van der Lee, Sven J and Yang, Jingyun and Yanek, Lisa R and Lee, Tom V and Li, Shuo and Hu, Yanhui and Koh, Jia Yu and Eicher, John D and Desrivi{\`e}res, Sylvane and Arias-Vasquez, Alejandro and Chauhan, Ganesh and Athanasiu, Lavinia and Renter{\'\i}a, Miguel E and Kim, Sungeun and Hoehn, David and Armstrong, Nicola J and Chen, Qiang and Holmes, Avram J and den Braber, Anouk and Kloszewska, Iwona and Andersson, Micael and Espeseth, Thomas and Grimm, Oliver and Abramovic, Lucija and Alhusaini, Saud and Milaneschi, Yuri and Papmeyer, Martina and Axelsson, Tomas and Ehrlich, Stefan and Roiz-Santia{\~n}ez, Roberto and Kraemer, Bernd and H{\r a}berg, Asta K and Jones, Hannah J and Pike, G Bruce and Stein, Dan J and Stevens, Allison and Bralten, Janita and Vernooij, Meike W and Harris, Tamara B and Filippi, Irina and Witte, A Veronica and Guadalupe, Tulio and Wittfeld, Katharina and Mosley, Thomas H and Becker, James T and Doan, Nhat Trung and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Saba, Yasaman and Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel and Amin, Najaf and Hilal, Saima and Nho, Kwangsik and Mirza-Schreiber, Nazanin and Arfanakis, Konstantinos and Becker, Diane M and Ames, David and Goldman, Aaron L and Lee, Phil H and Boomsma, Dorret I and Lovestone, Simon and Giddaluru, Sudheer and Le Hellard, Stephanie and Mattheisen, Manuel and Bohlken, Marc M and Kasperaviciute, Dalia and Schmaal, Lianne and Lawrie, Stephen M and Agartz, Ingrid and Walton, Esther and Tordesillas-Gutierrez, Diana and Davies, Gareth E and Shin, Jean and Ipser, Jonathan C and Vinke, Louis N and Hoogman, Martine and Jia, Tianye and Burkhardt, Ralph and Klein, Marieke and Crivello, Fabrice and Janowitz, Deborah and Carmichael, Owen and Haukvik, Unn K and Aribisala, Benjamin S and Schmidt, Helena and Strike, Lachlan T and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Risacher, Shannon L and P{\"u}tz, Benno and Fleischman, Debra A and Assareh, Amelia A and Mattay, Venkata S and Buckner, Randy L and Mecocci, Patrizia and Dale, Anders M and Cichon, Sven and Boks, Marco P and Matarin, Mar and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Calhoun, Vince D and Chakravarty, M Mallar and Marquand, Andre F and Macare, Christine and Kharabian Masouleh, Shahrzad and Oosterlaan, Jaap and Amouyel, Philippe and Hegenscheid, Katrin and Rotter, Jerome I and Schork, Andrew J and Liewald, David C M and de Zubicaray, Greig I and Wong, Tien Yin and Shen, Li and S{\"a}mann, Philipp G and Brodaty, Henry and Roffman, Joshua L and de Geus, Eco J C and Tsolaki, Magda and Erk, Susanne and van Eijk, Kristel R and Cavalleri, Gianpiero L and van der Wee, Nic J A and McIntosh, Andrew M and Gollub, Randy L and Bulayeva, Kazima B and Bernard, Manon and Richards, Jennifer S and Himali, Jayandra J and Loeffler, Markus and Rommelse, Nanda and Hoffmann, Wolfgang and Westlye, Lars T and Vald{\'e}s Hern{\'a}ndez, Maria C and Hansell, Narelle K and van Erp, Theo G M and Wolf, Christiane and Kwok, John B J and Vellas, Bruno and Heinz, Andreas and Olde Loohuis, Loes M and Delanty, Norman and Ho, Beng-Choon and Ching, Christopher R K and Shumskaya, Elena and Singh, Baljeet and Hofman, Albert and van der Meer, Dennis and Homuth, Georg and Psaty, Bruce M and Bastin, Mark E and Montgomery, Grant W and Foroud, Tatiana M and Reppermund, Simone and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Simmons, Andrew and Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas and Cahn, Wiepke and Whelan, Christopher D and van Donkelaar, Marjolein M J and Yang, Qiong and Hosten, Norbert and Green, Robert C and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Mohnke, Sebastian and Hulshoff Pol, Hilleke E and Lin, Honghuang and Jack, Clifford R and Schofield, Peter R and M{\"u}hleisen, Thomas W and Maillard, Pauline and Potkin, Steven G and Wen, Wei and Fletcher, Evan and Toga, Arthur W and Gruber, Oliver and Huentelman, Matthew and Davey Smith, George and Launer, Lenore J and Nyberg, Lars and J{\"o}nsson, Erik G and Crespo-Facorro, Benedicto and Koen, Nastassja and Greve, Douglas N and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Weinberger, Daniel R and Steen, Vidar M and Fedko, Iryna O and Groenewold, Nynke A and Niessen, Wiro J and Toro, Roberto and Tzourio, Christophe and Longstreth, William T and Ikram, M Kamran and Smoller, Jordan W and van Tol, Marie-Jose and Sussmann, Jessika E and Paus, Tom{\'a}{\v s} and Lema{\^\i}tre, Herv{\'e} and Schroeter, Matthias L and Mazoyer, Bernard and Andreassen, Ole A and Holsboer, Florian and Depondt, Chantal and Veltman, Dick J and Turner, Jessica A and Pausova, Zdenka and Schumann, Gunter and van Rooij, Daan and Djurovic, Srdjan and Deary, Ian J and McMahon, Katie L and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Brouwer, Rachel M and Soininen, Hilkka and Pandolfo, Massimo and Wassink, Thomas H and Cheung, Joshua W and Wolfers, Thomas and Martinot, Jean-Luc and Zwiers, Marcel P and Nauck, Matthias and Melle, Ingrid and Martin, Nicholas G and Kanai, Ryota and Westman, Eric and Kahn, Ren{\'e} S and Sisodiya, Sanjay M and White, Tonya and Saremi, Arvin and van Bokhoven, Hans and Brunner, Han G and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wright, Margaret J and van {\textquoteright}t Ent, Dennis and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Ophoff, Roel A and Buitelaar, Jan K and Fern{\'a}ndez, Guill{\'e}n and Sachdev, Perminder S and Rietschel, Marcella and van Haren, Neeltje E M and Fisher, Simon E and Beiser, Alexa S and Francks, Clyde and Saykin, Andrew J and Mather, Karen A and Romanczuk-Seiferth, Nina and Hartman, Catharina A and DeStefano, Anita L and Heslenfeld, Dirk J and Weiner, Michael W and Walter, Henrik and Hoekstra, Pieter J and Nyquist, Paul A and Franke, Barbara and Bennett, David A and Grabe, Hans J and Johnson, Andrew D and Chen, Christopher and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Lopez, Oscar L and Fornage, Myriam and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Schmidt, Reinhold and DeCarli, Charles and De Jager, Philip L and Villringer, Arno and Debette, Stephanie and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Medland, Sarah E and Shulman, Joshua M and Thompson, Paul M and Seshadri, Sudha and Ikram, M Arfan} } @article {9323, title = {Association of Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number With Brain MRI Markers and Cognitive Function: A Meta-analysis of Community-Based Cohorts.}, journal = {Neurology}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar 16}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous studies suggest lower mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number (CN) is associated with neurodegenerative diseases. However, whether mtDNA CN in whole blood is related to endophenotypes of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) and AD related dementia (AD/ADRD) needs further investigation. We assessed the association of mtDNA CN with cognitive function and MRI measures in community-based samples of middle-aged to older adults.

METHODS: We included dementia-free participants from nine diverse community-based cohorts with whole-genome sequencing in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. Circulating mtDNA CN was estimated as twice the ratio of the average coverage of mtDNA to nuclear DNA. Brain MRI markers included total brain, hippocampal, and white matter hyperintensity volumes. General cognitive function was derived from distinct cognitive domains. We performed cohort-specific association analyses of mtDNA CN with AD/ADRD endophenotypes assessed within {\textpm}5 years (i.e., cross-sectional analyses) or 5 to 20 years after blood draw (i.e., prospective analyses) adjusting for potential confounders. We further explored associations stratified by sex and age (<60 vs. >=60 years). Fixed-effects or sample size-weighted meta-analyses were performed to combine results. Finally, we performed Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to assess causality.

RESULTS: We included up to 19,152 participants (mean age 59 years, 57\% women). Higher mtDNA CN was cross-sectionally associated with better general cognitive function (Beta=0.04; 95\% CI 0.02, 0.06) independent of age, sex, batch effects, race/ethnicity, time between blood draw and cognitive evaluation, cohort-specific variables, and education. Additional adjustment for blood cell counts or cardiometabolic traits led to slightly attenuated results. We observed similar significant associations with cognition in prospective analyses, although of reduced magnitude. We found no significant associations between mtDNA CN and brain MRI measures in meta-analyses. MR analyses did not reveal a causal relation between mtDNA CN in blood and cognition.

DISCUSSION: Higher mtDNA CN in blood is associated with better current and future general cognitive function in large and diverse communities across the US. Although MR analyses did not support a causal role, additional research is needed to assess causality. Circulating mtDNA CN could serve nevertheless as a biomarker of current and future cognitive function in the community.

}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000207157}, author = {Zhang, Yuankai and Liu, Xue and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Guo, Xiuqing and Rodrigue, Amanda L and Zhao, Wei and Yanek, Lisa R and Ratliff, Scott M and Pitsillides, Achilleas and Aguirre Pati{\~n}o, Juan Sebastian and Sofer, Tamar and Arking, Dan E and Austin, Thomas R and Beiser, Alexa S and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bressler, Jan and Curran, Joanne E and Hou, Lifang and Hughes, Timothy M and Kardia, Sharon L and Launer, Lenore and Levy, Daniel and Mosley, Tom H and Nasrallah, Ilya M and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Seshadri, Sudha and Tarraf, Wassim and Gonz{\'a}lez, Kevin A and Ramachandran, Vasan and Yaffe, Kristine and Nyquist, Paul A and Psaty, Bruce M and DeCarli, Charles S and Smith, Jennifer A and Glahn, David C and Gonz{\'a}lez, Hector M and Bis, Joshua C and Fornage, Myriam and Heckbert, Susan R and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Liu, Chunyu and Satizabal, Claudia L} }