@article {7349, title = {DNA methylation signatures of chronic low-grade inflammation are associated with complex diseases.}, journal = {Genome Biol}, volume = {17}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec 12}, pages = {255}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Chronic low-grade inflammation reflects a subclinical immune response implicated in the pathogenesis of complex diseases. Identifying genetic loci where DNA methylation is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation may reveal novel pathways or therapeutic targets for inflammation.

RESULTS: We performed a meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of serum C-reactive protein (CRP), which is a sensitive marker of low-grade inflammation, in a large European population (n = 8863) and trans-ethnic replication in African Americans (n = 4111). We found differential methylation at 218 CpG sites to be associated with CRP (P < 1.15 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) in the discovery panel of European ancestry and replicated (P < 2.29 {\texttimes} 10(-4)) 58 CpG sites (45 unique loci) among African Americans. To further characterize the molecular and clinical relevance of the findings, we examined the association with gene expression, genetic sequence variants, and clinical outcomes. DNA methylation at nine (16\%) CpG sites was associated with whole blood gene expression in cis (P < 8.47 {\texttimes} 10(-5)), ten (17\%) CpG sites were associated with a nearby genetic variant (P < 2.50 {\texttimes} 10(-3)), and 51 (88\%) were also associated with at least one related cardiometabolic entity (P < 9.58 {\texttimes} 10(-5)). An additive weighted score of replicated CpG sites accounted for up to 6\% inter-individual variation (R2) of age-adjusted and sex-adjusted CRP, independent of known CRP-related genetic variants.

CONCLUSION: We have completed an EWAS of chronic low-grade inflammation and identified many novel genetic loci underlying inflammation that may serve as targets for the development of novel therapeutic interventions for inflammation.

}, issn = {1474-760X}, doi = {10.1186/s13059-016-1119-5}, author = {Ligthart, Symen and Marzi, Carola and Aslibekyan, Stella and Mendelson, Michael M and Conneely, Karen N and Tanaka, Toshiko and Colicino, Elena and Waite, Lindsay L and Joehanes, Roby and Guan, Weihua and Brody, Jennifer A and Elks, Cathy and Marioni, Riccardo and Jhun, Min A and Agha, Golareh and Bressler, Jan and Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and Chen, Brian H and Huan, Tianxiao and Bakulski, Kelly and Salfati, Elias L and Fiorito, Giovanni and Wahl, Simone and Schramm, Katharina and Sha, Jin and Hernandez, Dena G and Just, Allan C and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Pilling, Luke C and Pankow, James S and Tsao, Phil S and Liu, Chunyu and Zhao, Wei and Guarrera, Simonetta and Michopoulos, Vasiliki J and Smith, Alicia K and Peters, Marjolein J and Melzer, David and Vokonas, Pantel and Fornage, Myriam and Prokisch, Holger and Bis, Joshua C and Chu, Audrey Y and Herder, Christian and Grallert, Harald and Yao, Chen and Shah, Sonia and McRae, Allan F and Lin, Honghuang and Horvath, Steve and Fallin, Daniele and Hofman, Albert and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wiggins, Kerri L and Feinberg, Andrew P and Starr, John M and Visscher, Peter M and Murabito, Joanne M and Kardia, Sharon L R and Absher, Devin M and Binder, Elisabeth B and Singleton, Andrew B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Matullo, Giuseppe and Schwartz, Joel D and Demerath, Ellen W and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Franco, Oscar H and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Levy, Daniel and Turner, Stephen T and Deary, Ian J and Ressler, Kerry J and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Ferrucci, Luigi and Ong, Ken K and Assimes, Themistocles L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Koenig, Wolfgang and Arnett, Donna K and Baccarelli, Andrea A and Benjamin, Emelia J and Dehghan, Abbas} } @article {7261, title = {Epigenetic Signatures of Cigarette Smoking.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {436-447}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation leaves a long-term signature of smoking exposure and is one potential mechanism by which tobacco exposure predisposes to adverse health outcomes, such as cancers, osteoporosis, lung, and cardiovascular disorders.

METHODS AND RESULTS: To comprehensively determine the association between cigarette smoking and DNA methylation, we conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation assessed using the Illumina BeadChip 450K array on 15 907 blood-derived DNA samples from participants in 16 cohorts (including 2433 current, 6518 former, and 6956 never smokers). Comparing current versus never smokers, 2623 cytosine-phosphate-guanine sites (CpGs), annotated to 1405 genes, were statistically significantly differentially methylated at Bonferroni threshold of P<1{\texttimes}10(-7) (18 760 CpGs at false discovery rate <0.05). Genes annotated to these CpGs were enriched for associations with several smoking-related traits in genome-wide studies including pulmonary function, cancers, inflammatory diseases, and heart disease. Comparing former versus never smokers, 185 of the CpGs that differed between current and never smokers were significant P<1{\texttimes}10(-7) (2623 CpGs at false discovery rate <0.05), indicating a pattern of persistent altered methylation, with attenuation, after smoking cessation. Transcriptomic integration identified effects on gene expression at many differentially methylated CpGs.

CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette smoking has a broad impact on genome-wide methylation that, at many loci, persists many years after smoking cessation. Many of the differentially methylated genes were novel genes with respect to biological effects of smoking and might represent therapeutic targets for prevention or treatment of tobacco-related diseases. Methylation at these sites could also serve as sensitive and stable biomarkers of lifetime exposure to tobacco smoke.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001506}, author = {Joehanes, Roby and Just, Allan C and Marioni, Riccardo E and Pilling, Luke C and Reynolds, Lindsay M and Mandaviya, Pooja R and Guan, Weihua and Xu, Tao and Elks, Cathy E and Aslibekyan, Stella and Moreno-Macias, Hortensia and Smith, Jennifer A and Brody, Jennifer A and Dhingra, Radhika and Yousefi, Paul and Pankow, James S and Kunze, Sonja and Shah, Sonia H and McRae, Allan F and Lohman, Kurt and Sha, Jin and Absher, Devin M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Zhao, Wei and Demerath, Ellen W and Bressler, Jan and Grove, Megan L and Huan, Tianxiao and Liu, Chunyu and Mendelson, Michael M and Yao, Chen and Kiel, Douglas P and Peters, Annette and Wang-Sattler, Rui and Visscher, Peter M and Wray, Naomi R and Starr, John M and Ding, Jingzhong and Rodriguez, Carlos J and Wareham, Nicholas J and Irvin, Marguerite R and Zhi, Degui and Barrdahl, Myrto and Vineis, Paolo and Ambatipudi, Srikant and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Schwartz, Joel and Colicino, Elena and Hou, Lifang and Vokonas, Pantel S and Hernandez, Dena G and Singleton, Andrew B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Turner, Stephen T and Ware, Erin B and Smith, Alicia K and Klengel, Torsten and Binder, Elisabeth B and Psaty, Bruce M and Taylor, Kent D and Gharib, Sina A and Swenson, Brenton R and Liang, Liming and DeMeo, Dawn L and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Herceg, Zdenko and Ressler, Kerry J and Conneely, Karen N and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Kardia, Sharon L R and Melzer, David and Baccarelli, Andrea A and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Romieu, Isabelle and Arnett, Donna K and Ong, Ken K and Liu, Yongmei and Waldenberger, Melanie and Deary, Ian J and Fornage, Myriam and Levy, Daniel and London, Stephanie J} } @article {7583, title = {DNA Methylation Analysis Identifies Loci for Blood Pressure Regulation.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {101}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Dec 07}, pages = {888-902}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have identified hundreds of genetic variants associated with blood pressure (BP), but sequence variation accounts for a small fraction of the phenotypic variance. Epigenetic changes may alter the expression of genes involved in BP regulation and explain part of the missing heritability. We therefore conducted a two-stage meta-analysis of the cross-sectional associations of systolic and diastolic BP with blood-derived genome-wide DNA methylation measured on the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip in 17,010 individuals of European, African American, and Hispanic ancestry. Of 31 discovery-stage cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) dinucleotides, 13 replicated after Bonferroni correction (discovery: N = 9,828, p < 1.0~{\texttimes} 10-7; replication: N = 7,182, p~<~1.6~{\texttimes} 10-3). The replicated methylation sites are heritable (h2 > 30\%) and independent of known BP genetic variants, explaining an additional 1.4\% and 2.0\% of the interindividual variation in systolic and diastolic BP, respectively. Bidirectional Mendelian randomization among up to 4,513 individuals of European ancestry from 4 cohorts suggested that methylation at cg08035323 (TAF1B-YWHAQ) influences BP, while BP influences methylation at cg00533891 (ZMIZ1), cg00574958 (CPT1A), and cg02711608 (SLC1A5). Gene expression analyses further identified six genes (TSPAN2, SLC7A11, UNC93B1, CPT1A, PTMS, and LPCAT3) with evidence of triangular associations between methylation, gene expression, and BP. Additional integrative Mendelian randomization analyses of gene expression and DNA methylation suggested that the expression of TSPAN2 is a putative mediator of association between DNA methylation at cg23999170 and BP. These findings suggest that heritable DNA methylation plays a role in regulating BP independently of previously known genetic variants.

}, keywords = {Aged, Blood Pressure, CpG Islands, Cross-Sectional Studies, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Quantitative Trait Loci, Tetraspanins}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.09.028}, author = {Richard, Melissa A and Huan, Tianxiao and Ligthart, Symen and Gondalia, Rahul and Jhun, Min A and Brody, Jennifer A and Irvin, Marguerite R and Marioni, Riccardo and Shen, Jincheng and Tsai, Pei-Chien and Montasser, May E and Jia, Yucheng and Syme, Catriona and Salfati, Elias L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Guan, Weihua and Mosley, Thomas H and Bressler, Jan and Morrison, Alanna C and Liu, Chunyu and Mendelson, Michael M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Meurs, Joyce B and Franco, Oscar H and Zhang, Guosheng and Li, Yun and Stewart, James D and Bis, Joshua C and Psaty, Bruce M and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Kardia, Sharon L R and Zhao, Wei and Turner, Stephen T and Absher, Devin and Aslibekyan, Stella and Starr, John M and McRae, Allan F and Hou, Lifang and Just, Allan C and Schwartz, Joel D and Vokonas, Pantel S and Menni, Cristina and Spector, Tim D and Shuldiner, Alan and Damcott, Coleen M and Rotter, Jerome I and Palmas, Walter and Liu, Yongmei and Paus, Tom{\'a}{\v s} and Horvath, Steve and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Guo, Xiuqing and Pausova, Zdenka and Assimes, Themistocles L and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Smith, Jennifer A and Arnett, Donna K and Deary, Ian J and Baccarelli, Andrea A and Bell, Jordana T and Whitsel, Eric and Dehghan, Abbas and Levy, Daniel and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {8507, title = {Blood Leukocyte DNA Methylation Predicts Risk of Future Myocardial Infarction and Coronary Heart Disease.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {140}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 08 20}, pages = {645-657}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is implicated in coronary heart disease (CHD), but current evidence is based on small, cross-sectional studies. We examined blood DNA methylation in relation to incident CHD across multiple prospective cohorts.

METHODS: Nine population-based cohorts from the United States and Europe profiled epigenome-wide blood leukocyte DNA methylation using the Illumina Infinium 450k microarray, and prospectively ascertained CHD events including coronary insufficiency/unstable angina, recognized myocardial infarction, coronary revascularization, and coronary death. Cohorts conducted race-specific analyses adjusted for age, sex, smoking, education, body mass index, blood cell type proportions, and technical variables. We conducted fixed-effect meta-analyses across cohorts.

RESULTS: Among 11 461 individuals (mean age 64 years, 67\% women, 35\% African American) free of CHD at baseline, 1895 developed CHD during a mean follow-up of 11.2 years. Methylation levels at 52 CpG (cytosine-phosphate-guanine) sites were associated with incident CHD or myocardial infarction (false discovery rate<0.05). These CpGs map to genes with key roles in calcium regulation (ATP2B2, CASR, GUCA1B, HPCAL1), and genes identified in genome- and epigenome-wide studies of serum calcium (CASR), serum calcium-related risk of CHD (CASR), coronary artery calcified plaque (PTPRN2), and kidney function (CDH23, HPCAL1), among others. Mendelian randomization analyses supported a causal effect of DNA methylation on incident CHD; these CpGs map to active regulatory regions proximal to long non-coding RNA transcripts.

CONCLUSION: Methylation of blood-derived DNA is associated with risk of future CHD across diverse populations and may serve as an informative tool for gaining further insight on the development of CHD.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Europe, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Incidence, Leukocytes, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Population Groups, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Risk, United States}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.039357}, author = {Agha, Golareh and Mendelson, Michael M and Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and Joehanes, Roby and Huan, Tianxiao and Gondalia, Rahul and Salfati, Elias and Brody, Jennifer A and Fiorito, Giovanni and Bressler, Jan and Chen, Brian H and Ligthart, Symen and Guarrera, Simonetta and Colicino, Elena and Just, Allan C and Wahl, Simone and Gieger, Christian and Vandiver, Amy R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Hernandez, Dena G and Pilling, Luke C and Singleton, Andrew B and Sacerdote, Carlotta and Krogh, Vittorio and Panico, Salvatore and Tumino, Rosario and Li, Yun and Zhang, Guosheng and Stewart, James D and Floyd, James S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Rotter, Jerome I and Multhaup, Michael and Bakulski, Kelly and Horvath, Steven and Tsao, Philip S and Absher, Devin M and Vokonas, Pantel and Hirschhorn, Joel and Fallin, M Daniele and Liu, Chunyu and Bandinelli, Stefania and Boerwinkle, Eric and Dehghan, Abbas and Schwartz, Joel D and Psaty, Bruce M and Feinberg, Andrew P and Hou, Lifang and Ferrucci, Luigi and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Matullo, Giuseppe and Peters, Annette and Fornage, Myriam and Assimes, Themistocles L and Whitsel, Eric A and Levy, Daniel and Baccarelli, Andrea A} }