DESCRIPTION:

List of positional candidate genes after correcting for multiple testing and controlling the false discovery rate from genome wide association studies (GWAS) retrieved from the NHGRI-EBI Catalog of published genome-wide association studies (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas/). The disease/trait examined in this study, as reported by the authors, was Vascular endothelial growth factor levels. The EFO term vascular endothelial growth factor measurement was annotated to this set after curation by NHGRI-EBI. Intergenic SNPS were mapped to both the upstream and downstream gene. P-value uploaded. This gene set was generated using gwas2gs v. 0.1.8 and the GWAS Catalog v. 1.0.1.

LABEL:

GWAS: vascular endothelial growth factor measurement

SCORE TYPE:

P-Value

DATE ADDED:

2017-05-02

DATE UPDATED:

2024-04-25

SPECIES:

AUTHORS:

SH Choi, D Ruggiero, R Sorice, C Song, T Nutile, A Vernon Smith, MP Concas, M Traglia, C Barbieri, NC Ndiaye, MG Stathopoulou, V Lagou, GB Maestrale, C Sala, S Debette, P Kovacs, L Lind, J Lamont, P Fitzgerald, A Tönjes, V Gudnason, D Toniolo, M Pirastu, C Bellenguez, RS Vasan, E Ingelsson, AL Leutenegger, AD Johnson, AL DeStefano, S Visvikis-Siest, S Seshadri, M Ciullo

TITLE:

Six Novel Loci Associated with Circulating VEGF Levels Identified by a Meta-analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies.

JOURNAL:

PLoS genetics Feb 2016, Vol 12, pp. e1005874

ABSTRACT:

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an angiogenic and neurotrophic factor, secreted by endothelial cells, known to impact various physiological and disease processes from cancer to cardiovascular disease and to be pharmacologically modifiable. We sought to identify novel loci associated with circulating VEGF levels through a genome-wide association meta-analysis combining data from European-ancestry individuals and using a dense variant map from 1000 genomes imputation panel. Six discovery cohorts including 13,312 samples were analyzed, followed by in-silico and de-novo replication studies including an additional 2,800 individuals. A total of 10 genome-wide significant variants were identified at 7 loci. Four were novel loci (5q14.3, 10q21.3, 16q24.2 and 18q22.3) and the leading variants at these loci were rs114694170 (MEF2C, P = 6.79 x 10(-13)), rs74506613 (JMJD1C, P = 1.17 x 10(-19)), rs4782371 (ZFPM1, P = 1.59 x 10(-9)) and rs2639990 (ZADH2, P = 1.72 x 10(-8)), respectively. We also identified two new independent variants (rs34528081, VEGFA, P = 1.52 x 10(-18); rs7043199, VLDLR-AS1, P = 5.12 x 10(-14)) at the 3 previously identified loci and strengthened the evidence for the four previously identified SNPs (rs6921438, LOC100132354, P = 7.39 x 10(-1467); rs1740073, C6orf223, P = 2.34 x 10(-17); rs6993770, ZFPM2, P = 2.44 x 10(-60); rs2375981, KCNV2, P = 1.48 x 10(-100)). These variants collectively explained up to 52% of the VEGF phenotypic variance. We explored biological links between genes in the associated loci using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis that emphasized their roles in embryonic development and function. Gene set enrichment analysis identified the ERK5 pathway as enriched in genes containing VEGF associated variants. eQTL analysis showed, in three of the identified regions, variants acting as both cis and trans eQTLs for multiple genes. Most of these genes, as well as some of those in the associated loci, were involved in platelet biogenesis and functionality, suggesting the importance of this process in regulation of VEGF levels. This work also provided new insights into the involvement of genes implicated in various angiogenesis related pathologies in determining circulating VEGF levels. The understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which the identified genes affect circulating VEGF levels could be important in the development of novel VEGF-related therapies for such diseases. PUBMED: 26910538
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