Genome-wide association study of more than 40,000 bipolar disorder cases provides new insights into the underlying biology

HUNT All-In Psychiatry

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

762 Scopus citations

Abstract

Bipolar disorder is a heritable mental illness with complex etiology. We performed a genome-wide association study of 41,917 bipolar disorder cases and 371,549 controls of European ancestry, which identified 64 associated genomic loci. Bipolar disorder risk alleles were enriched in genes in synaptic signaling pathways and brain-expressed genes, particularly those with high specificity of expression in neurons of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Significant signal enrichment was found in genes encoding targets of antipsychotics, calcium channel blockers, antiepileptics and anesthetics. Integrating expression quantitative trait locus data implicated 15 genes robustly linked to bipolar disorder via gene expression, encoding druggable targets such as HTR6, MCHR1, DCLK3 and FURIN. Analyses of bipolar disorder subtypes indicated high but imperfect genetic correlation between bipolar disorder type I and II and identified additional associated loci. Together, these results advance our understanding of the biological etiology of bipolar disorder, identify novel therapeutic leads and prioritize genes for functional follow-up studies.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)817-829
Number of pages13
JournalNature Genetics
Volume53
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2021
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
Angelini Pharma
Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca
Stanley Medical Research Institute
Forest Research Institute
Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma
Farmindustria
Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A.
Sunovion
Ferrer
Shire
AES Corporation
Generalitat de Catalunya
Brain and Behaviour Foundation
Eli Lilly and Company
National Institutes of Health
European Commission
Abbott Laboratories
Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental
Mount Sinai high-performance computing cluster
Roche
Seventh Framework Programme
AB-Biotics
Gedeon Richter
Bristol-Myers Squibb
GlaxoSmithKline
Servier
Sanofi
AstraZeneca
Allergan
Horizon 2020
National Institute of Mental HealthR01MH119243, U01MH094421, U01MH109528, U01MH085520, ZIAMH002843, R01MH085548
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung156791
National Health and Medical Research Council630471, 628386, 1081603, 1037196, 1105825
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme668353, 847776, 294838, 623932
UK Research and InnovationG0801418
NIH Office of the DirectorS10OD026880, S10OD018522
Wellcome Trust078901

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