The endocytic membrane trafficking pathway plays a major role in the risk of Parkinson's disease

The International Parkinson's Disease Genomics Consortium (IPDGC)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

56 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: PD is a complex polygenic disorder. In recent years, several genes from the endocytic membrane-trafficking pathway have been suggested to contribute to disease etiology. However, a systematic analysis of pathway-specific genetic risk factors is yet to be performed. Objectives: To comprehensively study the role of the endocytic membrane-trafficking pathway in the risk of PD. Methods: Linkage disequilibrium score regression was used to estimate PD heritability explained by 252 genes involved in the endocytic membrane-trafficking pathway including genome-wide association studies data from 18,869 cases and 22,452 controls. We used pathway-specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms to construct a polygenic risk score reflecting the cumulative risk of common variants. To prioritize genes for follow-up functional studies, summary-data based Mendelian randomization analyses were applied to explore possible functional genomic associations with expression or methylation quantitative trait loci. Results: The heritability estimate attributed to endocytic membrane-trafficking pathway was 3.58% (standard error = 1.17). Excluding previously nominated PD endocytic membrane-trafficking pathway genes, the missing heritability was 2.21% (standard error = 0.42). Random heritability simulations were estimated to be 1.44% (standard deviation = 0.54), indicating that the unbiased total heritability explained by the endocytic membrane-trafficking pathway was 2.14%. Polygenic risk score based on endocytic membrane-trafficking pathway showed a 1.25 times increase of PD risk per standard deviation of genetic risk. Finally, Mendelian randomization identified 11 endocytic membrane-trafficking pathway genes showing functional consequence associated to PD risk. Conclusions: We provide compelling genetic evidence that the endocytic membrane-trafficking pathway plays a relevant role in disease etiology. Further research on this pathway is warranted given that critical effort should be made to identify potential avenues within this biological process suitable for therapeutic interventions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)460-468
Number of pages9
JournalMovement Disorders
Volume34
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Apr 2019

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Institutes of Health
U.S. Department of DefenseW81XWH-09-2-0128
National Institute on AgingZIAAG000957
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and StrokeZ01-AG000949-02, 1ZIA-NS003154, Z01-ES101986

    Keywords

    • Parkinson's disease
    • endocytosis
    • genetic risk
    • heritability
    • polygenic risk score

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