Skip to main content
Advertisement
  • Loading metrics

Immune-related genetic enrichment in frontotemporal dementia: An analysis of genome-wide association studies

  • Iris Broce ,

    Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    iris.broce@ucsf.edu (IB); rahul.desikan@ucsf.edu (RSD); leo.sugrue@ucsf.edu (LPS)

    Affiliation Neuroradiology Section, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • Celeste M. Karch,

    Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

  • Natalie Wen,

    Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft

    Affiliation Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America

  • Chun C. Fan,

    Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

  • Yunpeng Wang,

    Roles Methodology, Writing – original draft

    Affiliations Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

  • Chin Hong Tan,

    Roles Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Neuroradiology Section, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • Naomi Kouri,

    Roles Methodology, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, United States of America

  • Owen A. Ross,

    Roles Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, United States of America

  • Günter U. Höglinger,

    Roles Methodology, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliations Department of Neurology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Munich, Germany, Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany

  • Ulrich Muller,

    Roles Methodology, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Institut for Humangenetik, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Giessen, Germany

  • John Hardy,

    Roles Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Molecular Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom

  • International FTD-Genomics Consortium ,

    Membership of the International FTD-Genomics Consortium is provided in S1 Acknowledgments.

  • Parastoo Momeni,

    Roles Data curation, Project administration, Resources, Writing – original draft

    Affiliation Laboratory of Neurogenetics, Department of Internal Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, United States of America

  • Christopher P. Hess,

    Roles Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Neuroradiology Section, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • William P. Dillon,

    Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Neuroradiology Section, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • Zachary A. Miller,

    Roles Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • Luke W. Bonham,

    Roles Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • Gil D. Rabinovici,

    Roles Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • Howard J. Rosen,

    Roles Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • Gerard D. Schellenberg,

    Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

  • Andre Franke,

    Roles Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany

  • Tom H. Karlsen,

    Roles Data curation, Writing – original draft

    Affiliations Norwegian PSC Research Center, Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, Surgery and Transplantation, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway, Division of Gastroenterology, Institute of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, K.G. Jebsen Inflammation Research Centre, Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, Surgery and Transplantation, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway

  • Jan H. Veldink,

    Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Neurology, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands

  • Raffaele Ferrari,

    Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Molecular Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom

  • Jennifer S. Yokoyama,

    Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • Bruce L. Miller,

    Roles Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • Ole A. Andreassen,

    Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliations Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

  • Anders M. Dale,

    Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

    Affiliations Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

  • Rahul S. Desikan ,

    Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    iris.broce@ucsf.edu (IB); rahul.desikan@ucsf.edu (RSD); leo.sugrue@ucsf.edu (LPS)

    Affiliations Neuroradiology Section, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  •  [ ... ],
  • Leo P. Sugrue

    Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

    iris.broce@ucsf.edu (IB); rahul.desikan@ucsf.edu (RSD); leo.sugrue@ucsf.edu (LPS)

    Affiliation Neuroradiology Section, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

  • [ view all ]
  • [ view less ]

Correction

29 Jan 2018: Broce I, Karch CM, Wen N, Fan CC, Wang Y, et al. (2018) Correction: Immune-related genetic enrichment in frontotemporal dementia: An analysis of genome-wide association studies. PLOS Medicine 15(1): e1002504. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002504 View correction

Abstract

Background

Converging evidence suggests that immune-mediated dysfunction plays an important role in the pathogenesis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Although genetic studies have shown that immune-associated loci are associated with increased FTD risk, a systematic investigation of genetic overlap between immune-mediated diseases and the spectrum of FTD-related disorders has not been performed.

Methods and findings

Using large genome-wide association studies (GWASs) (total n = 192,886 cases and controls) and recently developed tools to quantify genetic overlap/pleiotropy, we systematically identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) jointly associated with FTD-related disorders—namely, FTD, corticobasal degeneration (CBD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—and 1 or more immune-mediated diseases including Crohn disease, ulcerative colitis (UC), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), type 1 diabetes (T1D), celiac disease (CeD), and psoriasis. We found up to 270-fold genetic enrichment between FTD and RA, up to 160-fold genetic enrichment between FTD and UC, up to 180-fold genetic enrichment between FTD and T1D, and up to 175-fold genetic enrichment between FTD and CeD. In contrast, for CBD and PSP, only 1 of the 6 immune-mediated diseases produced genetic enrichment comparable to that seen for FTD, with up to 150-fold genetic enrichment between CBD and CeD and up to 180-fold enrichment between PSP and RA. Further, we found minimal enrichment between ALS and the immune-mediated diseases tested, with the highest levels of enrichment between ALS and RA (up to 20-fold). For FTD, at a conjunction false discovery rate < 0.05 and after excluding SNPs in linkage disequilibrium, we found that 8 of the 15 identified loci mapped to the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region on Chromosome (Chr) 6. We also found novel candidate FTD susceptibility loci within LRRK2 (leucine rich repeat kinase 2), TBKBP1 (TBK1 binding protein 1), and PGBD5 (piggyBac transposable element derived 5). Functionally, we found that the expression of FTD–immune pleiotropic genes (particularly within the HLA region) is altered in postmortem brain tissue from patients with FTD and is enriched in microglia/macrophages compared to other central nervous system cell types. The main study limitation is that the results represent only clinically diagnosed individuals. Also, given the complex interconnectedness of the HLA region, we were not able to define the specific gene or genes on Chr 6 responsible for our pleiotropic signal.

Conclusions

We show immune-mediated genetic enrichment specifically in FTD, particularly within the HLA region. Our genetic results suggest that for a subset of patients, immune dysfunction may contribute to FTD risk. These findings have potential implications for clinical trials targeting immune dysfunction in patients with FTD.

Author summary

Why was this study done?

  • Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the leading cause of dementia in individuals less than 65 years old.
  • Currently, there is no approved treatment of FTD and no diagnostic tests for predicting disease onset or measuring progression.
  • Increasing evidence suggests that inflammation and immune system dysfunction play an important role in the pathogenesis of FTD.

What did the researchers do and find?

  • We used summary data from genome-wide association studies to investigate genetic overlap, or “pleiotropy,” between FTD and a variety of immune-mediated diseases.
  • Through this approach, we found extensive FTD–immune genetic overlap within the HLA region on Chromosome 6, an area rich in genes related to microglial function, as well as in 3 genes not previously identified as contributing to the pathophysiology of FTD.
  • Pointing to the functional relevance of these genetic results, we found that these candidate FTD–immune genes are differentially expressed in postmortem brains from patients with FTD compared to controls, and in microglia/macrophages compared with other central nervous system cells.
  • Using bioinformatics tools, we explored protein and genetic interactions among our candidate FTD–immune genes. These results suggest that rather than a few individual loci, large portions of the HLA region may be associated with increased FTD risk.

What do these findings mean?

  • Immune dysfunction may play a role in the pathophysiology of a subset of FTD cases.
  • For a subset of patients in whom immune dysfunction in general—and microglial activation in particular—is central to disease pathophysiology, anti-inflammatory treatment is an important area for further investigation.

Introduction

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder and the leading cause of dementia among individuals younger than 65 years of age [1]. Given rapid disease progression and the absence of disease-modifying therapies, there is an urgent need to better understand FTD pathobiology to accelerate development of novel preventive and therapeutic strategies.

Converging molecular, cellular, genetic, and clinical evidence suggests that neuroinflammation plays a role in FTD pathogenesis. Complement factors and activated microglia, key components of inflammation, have been established as histopathologic features in brains of patients [2] and in mouse models of FTD [3,4]. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have shown that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the immune-regulating human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region on Chromosome (Chr) 6 are associated with elevated FTD risk [5]. Importantly, there is increased prevalence of immune-mediated diseases among patients with FTD [6,7]. Together, these findings suggest that immune-related mechanisms may contribute to and potentially drive FTD pathology.

Recent work in human molecular genetics has emphasized “pleiotropy,” where variations in a single gene can affect multiple, seemingly unrelated phenotypes [8]. In the present study, we systematically evaluated genetic pleiotropy between FTD and immune-mediated diseases. Using large neurodegenerative GWASs and recently developed tools to estimate polygenic pleiotropy, we sought to identify SNPs jointly associated with FTD-related disorders [9,10]—namely, FTD, corticobasal degeneration (CBD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—and 1 or more immune-mediated diseases including Crohn disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), type 1 diabetes (T1D), celiac disease (CeD), and psoriasis (PSOR).

Methods

Participant samples

We conducted a meta-analysis of summary data obtained from published data. More specifically, we evaluated complete GWAS results in the form of summary statistics (p-values and odds ratios) for FTD, CBD, PSP, and ALS and 6 immune-mediated diseases, including CD [11], UC [12], RA [13], T1D [14], CeD [15], and PSOR [16] (see Table 1). We obtained FTD GWAS summary statistic data from phase I of the International FTD-Genomics Consortium (IFGC), which consisted of 2,154 clinical FTD cases and 4,308 controls with genotyped and imputed data at 6,026,384 SNPs (Table 1; for additional details, see [5]). The FTD dataset included multiple clinically diagnosed FTD subtypes: behavioral variant (bvFTD), semantic dementia (sdFTD), primary nonfluent progressive aphasia (pnfaFTD), and FTD overlapping with motor neuron disease (mndFTD). These FTD cases and controls were recruited from 44 international research groups and diagnosed according to the Neary criteria [17]. The institutional review boards of all participating institutions approved the procedures for all IFGC sub-studies. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants or surrogates. We obtained CBD GWAS summary statistic data from 152 CBD cases and 3,311 controls at 533,898 SNPs (Table 1; for additional details, see [18]). The CBD cases were collected from 8 institutions, and controls were recruited from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. CBD was neuropathologically diagnosed using the National Institutes of Health Office of Rare Diseases Research criteria [19]. The institutional review boards of all participating institutions approved the procedures for CBD GWAS data. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants or surrogates. We obtained PSP GWAS summary statistic data (stage 1) from the National Institute on Aging Genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease Data Storage Site (NIAGADS, https://www.niagads.org) for 1,114 individuals with autopsy-confirmed PSP and 3,247 controls at 531,451 SNPs (Table 1; for additional details, see [20]). The institutional review boards of all participating institutions approved the procedures for all NIAGADS sub-studies. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants or surrogates. We obtained ALS GWAS summary statistic data from 12,577 ALS cases and 23,475 controls at 18,741,501 SNPs (Table 1; for additional details, see [21]). The ALS GWAS summary statistics and sequenced variants are publicly available through the Project MinE Data Browser (http://databrowser.projectmine.com). The institutional review boards of all participating institutions approved the procedures for all ALS GWAS sub-studies. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants or surrogates.

thumbnail
Table 1. Summary data from all genome-wide association studies used in the current study.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.t001

Genetic enrichment statistical analyses

The pleiotropic enrichment strategies implemented here were derived from previously published stratified false discovery rate (FDR) methods [22,23]. For given phenotypes A and B, pleiotropic “enrichment” between phenotype A and phenotype B exists if the proportion of SNPs or genes associated with phenotype A increases as a function of increased association with phenotype B. To assess for enrichment, we constructed fold enrichment plots of nominal −log10(p)-values for all FTD-related-disorder SNPs and for subsets of SNPs determined by the significance of their association with the 6 immune-mediated diseases. In fold enrichment plots, the presence of enrichment is reflected as an upward deflection of the curve for phenotype A with increasing strength of association with phenotype B. To assess for polygenic effects below the standard GWAS significance threshold, we focused the fold enrichment plots on SNPs with nominal −log10(p) < 7.3 (corresponding to p > 5 × 10−8). The enrichment seen can be directly interpreted in terms of the true discovery rate (1 − FDR).

To identify specific loci jointly involved with each of the 4 FTD-related disorders and the 6 immune-mediated diseases, we computed conjunction FDRs. The conjunction FDR is a test of association between 2 traits [22]. Briefly, the conjunction FDR, denoted by FDRtrait1& trait2, is defined as the posterior probability that a SNP is null for either trait or for both simultaneously, given that the p-values for both traits are as small, or smaller, than the observed p-values. Unlike the conditional FDR, which ranks disease/primary-phenotype-associated SNPs based on genetic “relatedness” with secondary phenotypes [24], the conjunction FDR minimizes the possibility/likelihood of a single phenotype driving the common association signal. The conjunction FDR therefore tends to be more conservative and specifically pinpoints pleiotropic loci shared between the traits/diseases of interest. We used an overall FDR threshold of <0.05, which means 5 expected false discoveries per 100 reported. To visualize the results of our conjunction FDR analysis, we constructed Manhattan plots to illustrate the genomic location of the pleiotropic loci. We ranked all SNPs based on the conjunction FDR and removed SNPs in linkage disequilibrium (r2 > 0.2) with any higher ranked SNP. Key aspects and detailed information on fold enrichment plots, Manhattan plots, and conjunction FDRs can be found in prior reports [22,23,25,26].

Functional evaluation of shared risk loci

To assess whether SNPs that are shared between FTD and immune-mediated disease modify gene expression, we identified cis-expression quantitative trait loci (cis-eQTLs, defined as variants within 1 Mb of a gene’s transcription start site) associated with shared FTD–immune SNPs and measured their regional brain expression in a publicly available dataset of normal control brains (UK Brain Expression Consortium; http://braineac.org/) [27]. We also evaluated cis-eQTLs using a blood-based dataset [28]. We applied an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to test for associations between genotypes and gene expression. We tested SNPs using an additive model.

Network-based functional association analyses

To evaluate potential protein and genetic interactions, co-expression, co-localization, and protein domain similarity for the functionally expressed (i.e., with significant cis-eQTLs) pleiotropic genes, we used GeneMANIA (http://genemania.org), an online web portal for bioinformatic assessment of gene networks [29]. In addition to visualizing the composite gene network, we also assessed the weights of individual components within the network [30].

Gene expression alterations in FTD brains

To determine whether functionally expressed (i.e., with significant cis-eQTLs) pleiotropic genes are differentially expressed in the brains of FTD patients, we analyzed the gene expression of pleiotropic genes. Postmortem expression data from the brains of 17 patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions (FTD-U) (with and without progranulin [GRN] mutations) and 11 controls were obtained from a publically available dataset (Gene Expression Omnibus [GEO] dataset GSE13162; for additional details, see [31]). These data consist of global gene expression profiles from all histopathologically available regions from human FTD-U and control brains (frontal cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum) analyzed on the Affymetrix U133A microarray platform. Given the small sample size of each individual region, we combined all 3 regions to maximize statistical power. Details about this dataset and analysis—including the human brain samples used, RNA extraction and hybridization methods, microarray quality control, and microarray data analysis—are provided in the original report [31].

Evaluation of cell classes within the brain

Using a publicly available RNA-sequencing transcriptome and splicing database [32], we ascertained whether the functionally expressed (i.e., with significant cis-eQTLs) pleiotropic genes were expressed by specific cell classes within the brain. The 8 cell types surveyed were neurons, fetal and mature astrocytes, oligodendrocyte precursor cells, newly formed oligodendrocytes, myelinating oligodendrocytes, microglia/macrophages (henceforth “microglia”), endothelial cells, and pericytes (for additional details, see [32]).

Results

Shared genetic risk between FTD and immune-mediated disease

Using progressively stringent p-value thresholds for FTD SNPs (i.e., increasing values of nominal −log10[p]), we observed genetic enrichment for FTD as a function of several immune-mediated diseases (Fig 1). More specifically, we found strong (up to 270-fold) genetic enrichment between FTD and RA, and comparable enrichment between FTD and UC, T1D, and CeD, with weaker enrichment between FTD and PSOR and CD.

thumbnail
Fig 1. Fold enrichment plots of enrichment versus nominal −log10(p)-values (corrected for inflation) in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) below the standard genome-wide association study threshold of p < 5 × 10−8 as a function of significance of association with 6 immune-mediated diseases.

The 6 immune-mediated diseases are Crohn disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), type 1 diabetes (T1D), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), celiac disease (CeD), and psoriasis (PSOR). The levels of −log10(p) > 0, −log10(p) > 1, and −log10(p) > 2 correspond to p < 1, p < 0.1, and p < 0.01, respectively. The dark blue line indicates all SNPs.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.g001

At a conjunction FDR < 0.05, we identified 21 SNPs that were associated with both FTD and immune-mediated diseases (Fig 2; Table 2). Five of these SNPs demonstrated the opposite direction of allelic effect between FTD and the immune-mediated diseases (Table 2): (1) rs9261536, nearest gene = TRIM15; (2) rs3094138, nearest gene = TRIM26; (3) rs9268877, nearest gene = HLA-DRA; (4) rs10484561, nearest gene = HLA-DQB1; and (5) rs2269423, nearest gene = AGPAT1. Of the remaining 16, 2 SNPs showed strong linkage disequilibrium (LD), suggesting that they reflected the same signal: rs204991 and rs204989 (nearest gene: GPSM3; pairwise D′ = 1, r2 = 1). After excluding SNPs that demonstrated the opposite direction of allelic effect and SNPs that were in LD, we found that 8 of the remaining 15 identified loci mapped to the HLA region, suggesting that HLA markers were critical in driving our results. To test this hypothesis, we repeated our enrichment analysis after removing all SNPs in LD with r2 > 0.2 within 1 Mb of HLA variants (based on 1000 Genomes Project LD structure). After removing HLA SNPs, we saw considerable attenuation of genetic enrichment in FTD as a function of immune-mediated disease (Fig 3), suggesting that the observed overlap between immune-related diseases and FTD was largely driven by the HLA region. Further, to determine causal associations for FTD and the 6 immune-mediated diseases, we applied the recently developed summary-data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR; http://cnsgenomics.com/software/smr/) method. This approach is described in detail within the original report [33]. As shown in S1 Table, results from the SMR analysis have identified significant loci that are consistent with the main findings, which suggest that HLA markers on Chr 6 are critical in driving our pleiotropic results.

thumbnail
Fig 2. “Conjunction” Manhattan plot of conjunction −log10(FDR) values for frontotemporal dementia (FTD) given 6 immune-mediated diseases.

The 6 immune-related diseases were Crohn disease (CD; FTD|CD, red), ulcerative colitis (UC, FTD|UC, orange), type 1 diabetes (T1D, FTD|T1D, teal), rheumatoid arthritis (RA, FTD|RA, green), celiac disease (CeD, FTD|CeD, magenta), and psoriasis (PSOR, FTD|PSOR, blue). SNPs with conjunction −log10(FDR) > 1.3 (i.e., FDR < 0.05) are shown with large points. A black line around the large points indicates the most significant SNP in each linkage disequilibrium block, and this SNP was annotated with the closest gene, which is listed above the symbols in each locus.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.g002

thumbnail
Fig 3. Fold enrichment plots of enrichment (after removing all regions in linkage disequilibrium with HLA on Chromosome 6) versus nominal −log10(p)-values (corrected for inflation) in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) below the standard genome-wide association study threshold of p < 5 × 10−8 as a function of significance of association with 6 immune-mediated diseases.

The 6 immune-mediated diseases were Crohn disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), type 1 diabetes (T1D), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), celiac disease (CeD), and psoriasis (PSOR). The levels of −log10(p) > 0, −log10(p) > 1, and −log10(p) > 2 correspond to p < 1, p < 0.1, and p < 0.01, respectively. The dark blue line indicates all SNPs.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.g003

thumbnail
Table 2. Overlapping loci between FTD and immune-mediated disease at a conjunction FDR < 0.05.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.t002

Outside the HLA region, we found 7 other FTD- and immune-associated SNPs (Fig 2; Table 2), including 2 in strong LD that mapped to the H1 haplotype of microtubule associated protein tau (MAPT) (LD: rs199533 and rs17572851; nearest genes: NSF and MAPT, pairwise D′ = 1, r2 = 0.94). Beyond MAPT, we found 5 additional novel loci associated with increased FTD risk, namely, (1) rs2192493 (Chr 7, nearest gene = TWISTNB), (2) rs7778450 (Chr 7, nearest gene = TNS3), (3) rs10216900 (Chr 8, nearest gene = CR590356), (4) rs10784359 (Chr 12, nearest gene = SLC2A13), and (5) rs2134297 (Chr 18, nearest gene = DCC) (see Table 2 for additional details).

Modest genetic enrichment between immune-mediated disease and PSP, CBD, and ALS

To evaluate the specificity of the shared genetic overlap between FTD and immune-mediated disease, we also evaluated overlap between the 6 immune-mediated diseases and CBD, PSP, and ALS. For CBD and PSP, a few of the immune-mediated diseases produced genetic enrichment comparable to that seen for FTD (S1S3 Figs; S2S4 Tables). For example, we found 150-fold genetic enrichment between CBD and CeD and 180-fold enrichment between PSP and RA. In contrast, we found minimal enrichment between ALS and the immune-mediated diseases tested, with the highest levels of enrichment between ALS and RA (up to 20-fold) and between ALS and CeD (up to 15-fold).

At a conjunction FDR < 0.05, we identified several SNPs associated with both immune-mediated disease and CBD, PSP, or ALS (S4S6 Figs; S2S4 Tables). Few of the SNPs shared between CBD, PSP, or ALS and immune-mediated disease mapped to the HLA region. Only 2 PSP–immune SNPs mapped to the region of MLN and IRF4 on Chr 6, and no CBD–immune or ALS–immune SNPs mapped to the HLA region (S4S6 Figs; S2S4 Tables).

Beyond the HLA region, we found several overlapping loci between the immune- mediated diseases and CBD, PSP, and ALS (S4S6 Figs; S2S4 Tables). For PSP, these were (1) rs7642229 with CeD (Chr 3, nearest gene = XCR1, FDR = 1.74 × 10−2); (2) rs11718668 with CeD (Chr 3, nearest gene = TERC, FDR = 3.00 × 10−2); (3) rs12203592 with CeD (Chr 6, nearest gene = IRF4, FDR = 4.17 × 10−2); (4) rs1122554 with RA (Chr 6, nearest gene = MLN, FDR = 2.09 × 10−2); and (5) rs3748256 with RA (Chr 11, nearest gene = FAM76B, FDR = 2.09 × 10−2). For ALS, these were (1) rs3828599 with CeD (Chr 5, nearest gene = GPX3, FDR = 2.27 × 10−2) and (2) rs10488631 with RA (Chr 7, nearest gene = TNPO3, FDR = 3.42 × 10−2).

cis-eQTL expression

To investigate whether shared FTD–immune SNPs modify gene expression, we evaluated cis-eQTLs in both brain and blood tissue types. At a previously established conservative Bonferroni-corrected p-value < 3.9 × 10−5 [34], we found significant cis-associations between shared SNPs and genes in the HLA region on Chr 6 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, lymphoblasts, and the human brain (see S5 Table for gene expression associated with each SNP). We also found that rs199533 and rs17572851 on Chr 17 were significantly associated with MAPT (p = 2 × 10−12) expression in the brain. Beyond the HLA and MAPT regions, notable cis-eQTLs included rs10784359 and LRRK2 (p = 1.40 × 10− 7) and rs2192493 and TBKBP1 (p = 1.29 × 10−6) (see S5 Table).

Protein–protein and co-expression networks

We found physical interaction and gene co-expression networks for the FTD–immune pleiotropic genes with significant cis-eQTLs (at a Bonferroni-corrected p-value < 3.9 × 10−5). We found robust co-expression between various HLA classes, further suggesting that large portions of the HLA region, rather than a few individual loci, may be involved with FTD (Fig 4; S6 Table). Interestingly, we found that several non-HLA functionally expressed FTD–immune genes, namely, LRRK2, PGBD5, and TBKBP1, showed co-expression with HLA-associated genes (Fig 4).

thumbnail
Fig 4. Network interaction graph predominantly illustrating co-expression and shared protein domains for functionally expressed pleiotropic genes between frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and immune-related diseases.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.g004

Genetic expression in FTD brains compared to controls

To investigate whether the FTD–immune pleiotropic genes with significant cis-eQTLs are differentially expressed in FTD brains, we compared gene expression in FTD-U brains to that in brains from neurologically healthy controls. We found significantly different levels of HLA gene expression in FTD-U brains compared to control brains (Table 3). This was true of FTD-U brains regardless of progranulin gene (GRN) mutation status. In spite of the fact that the FTD GWAS used to identify these genes was based on patients with sporadic FTD (without GRN mutations), GRN mutation carriers showed the greatest differences in HLA gene expression (Fig 5; Table 3). These findings are compatible with prior work showing microglial-mediated immune dysfunction in GRN mutation carriers [3].

thumbnail
Fig 5. Pleiotropic genes between frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and immune-related diseases are elevated in brains of patients with FTD with GRN mutation.

Expression for the genes with the largest effect sizes are plotted: (A) HLA-A, (B) HLA-C, (C) HLA-DRQ, and (D) HLA-DRA. Expression values were obtained from GSE13162 for FTD-U brains with and without GRN mutations and neuropathology-free controls. Horizontal bar represents mean ± SEM.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.g005

thumbnail
Table 3. Genes associated with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and immune-mediated disease differentially altered in patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitinated inclusions (FTD-U) versus controls.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.t003

Microglial enrichment

For the FTD–immune pleiotropic genes with significant cis-eQTLs, across different central nervous system (CNS) cell types, we found significantly greater expression within microglia compared to neurons or fetal astrocytes (Fig 6A; Table 4). Interestingly, HLA genes showed the greatest degree of differential expression. Four of the FTD–immune HLA-associated genes, namely HLA-DRA, AOAH, HLA-A, and HLA-C, showed highest expression in microglia (ranging from 10 to 60 fragments per kilobase of transcript per million; see Fig 6B). In addition, MAPT was predominantly expressed in neurons, LRRK2 in microglia, PGBD5 in neurons, and TBKBP1 in fetal astrocytes (Figs 6B and S7S9).

thumbnail
Fig 6. Microglia enrichment in genes associated with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and immune-mediated disease.

FTD–immune genes were analyzed to determine the cell type in which each gene was most highly expressed [32]. (A) Bar plots showing the relative number of genes most highly expressed in each cell type. No genes were most highly expressed in endothelial cells or oligodendrocytes. See Table 4 for individual gene names. (B) Individual bar plots showing cell-type-specific expression for genes with the largest effect size. Note that the horizontal scale is not the same in all the plots. FPKM, fragments per kilobase of transcript per million.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.g006

thumbnail
Table 4. Enrichment of genes associated with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and immune-mediated disease in microglia compared with other central nervous system cells.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.t004

Discussion

We systematically assessed genetic overlap between 4 FTD-related disorders and several immune-mediated diseases. We found extensive genetic overlap between FTD and immune-mediated disease particularly within the HLA region on Chr 6, a region rich in genes associated with microglial function. This genetic enrichment was specific to FTD and did not extend to CBD, PSP, or ALS. Further, we found that shared FTD–immune gene variants were differentially expressed in FTD patients compared with controls, and in microglia compared with other CNS cells. Beyond the HLA region, by leveraging statistical power from large immune-mediated GWASs, we detected novel candidate FTD associations requiring validation within LRRK2, TBKBP1, and PGBD5. Considered together, these findings suggest that various microglia and inflammation-associated genes, particularly within the HLA region, may play a critical and selective role in FTD pathogenesis.

By combining GWASs from multiple studies and applying a pleiotropic approach, we identified genetic variants jointly associated with FTD-related disorders and immune-mediated disease. We found that the strength of genetic overlap with immune-mediated disease varies markedly across FTD-related disorders, with the strongest pleiotropic effects associated with FTD, followed by CBD and PSP, and the weakest pleiotropic effects associated with ALS. We identified 8 FTD- and immune-associated loci that mapped to the HLA region, a concentration of loci that was not observed for the other disorders. Indeed, only 2 PSP–immune pleiotropic SNPs and no CBD–immune or ALS–immune pleiotropic SNPs mapped to the HLA region. Previous work has identified particular HLA genes associated with CBD, PSP, and ALS [35,36]. In contrast, our current findings implicate large portions of the HLA region in the pathogenesis of FTD. Together, these results suggest that each disorder across the larger FTD spectrum has a unique relationship with the HLA region.

Our results also indicate that functionally expressed FTD–immune shared genetic variants are differentially expressed in FTD brains compared to controls and in microglia compared to other CNS cell types (Fig 6). Microglia play a role in the pathophysiology of GRN+ FTD. Progranulin is expressed in microglia [37], and GRN haploinsufficiency is associated with abnormal microglial activation and neurodegeneration [3]. It is perhaps expected, therefore, that GRN+ brains show differential expression of FTD–immune genes, even though these genetic variants were derived from a GWAS of patients with sporadic FTD (who lack GRN or other established FTD mutations). More surprising is the presence of similar enrichment in GRN− brains, suggesting that dysfunction of microglial-centered immune networks may be a common feature of FTD pathogenesis.

By leveraging statistical power from the large immune-mediated GWASs, we identified novel candidate FTD associations requiring validation within LRRK2, TBKBP1, and PGBD5 and confirmed previously shown FTD-associated signal within the MAPT region. LRRK2 mutations are a cause of Parkinson disease [38] and CD [39]. We previously described a potential link between FTD and the LRRK2 locus [40], and another study using a small sample showed that LRRK2 mutations may increase FTD risk [41]. Together, these results suggest that the extended LRRK2 locus might influence FTD despite common genetic variants within LRRK2 not reaching genome-wide significance in a large FTD GWAS [5]. We suggest that increased expression of LRRK2 in microglia results in proinflammatory responses, possibly by modulating TNF-alpha secretion [42]. TBKBP1 also modulates TNF-alpha signaling by binding to TBK1 (TANK binding kinase 1) [43]; rare pathogenic variants in TBK1 cause FTD-ALS [4446]. Importantly, elevated CSF levels of TNF-alpha are a core feature of FTD [6,47]. Building on these findings, in our bioinformatics “network”-based analysis, we found that both LRRK2 and TBKBP1 interact with genes within the HLA region (Fig 4). Further, physical interactions between MAPT and the HLA network are compatible with research suggesting that under different conditions reactive microglia can either drive or mitigate tau pathology [48,49]. MAPT mutations, which disrupt the normal binding of tau protein to tubulin, account for a large proportion of familial FTD cases [50]. Together, these findings suggest that LRRK2, TBKBP1, and MAPT may, at least in part, influence FTD pathogenesis via HLA-related mechanisms.

This study has limitations. Particularly, in the original datasets that form the basis of our analysis, diagnosis of FTD was established clinically. Given the clinical overlap among neurodegenerative diseases, we cannot exclude the potential influence of clinical misdiagnosis. As such, our findings would benefit from confirmation in large pathologically confirmed cohorts. In addition, given the complex interconnectedness of the HLA region (see Fig 4), we also were not able to define the specific gene or genes on Chr 6 responsible for our pleiotropic signal. However, given the number of HLA loci associated with increased FTD risk, it may be the case that no single HLA variant will be clinically informative; rather, an additive combination of these microglia-associated genetic variants may better inform FTD risk. This possibility is supported by our observation that the expression levels of FTD-immune shared genetic variants differ on average between FTD brains and controls, but with considerable overlap between the two groups, again suggesting that no single variant is likely to be the determinant of FTD risk (Fig 5). Further, we acknowledge the lack of transcriptomic and epigenetic data that would help to identify possible causal associations and mechanisms driving our pleotropic signal.

In conclusion, across a large cohort (total n = 192,886 cases and controls), we used pleiotropy between FTD-related disorders and immune-mediated disease to identify several genes within the HLA region that are expressed within microglia and differentially expressed in the brains of patients with FTD. Building on prior work [6,7], our results support a disease model in which immune dysfunction is central to the pathophysiology of a subset of FTD cases. These findings have important implications for future work in FTD focused on monitoring microglial activation as a marker of disease progression and investigating anti-inflammatory treatments as modifiers of disease outcome.

Supporting information

S1 Fig. Fold enrichment plots of enrichment versus nominal −log10(p)-values (corrected for inflation) in corticobasal degeneration (CBD) below the standard genome-wide association study threshold of p < 5 × 10−8 as a function of significance of association with 6 immune-mediated diseases.

The 6 immune-mediated diseases are Crohn disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), type 1 diabetes (T1D), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), celiac disease (CeD), and psoriasis (PSOR). The levels of −log10(p) > 0, −log10(p) > 1, and −log10(p) > 2 correspond to p < 1, p < 0.1, and p < 0.01, respectively. The dark blue line indicates all SNPs.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s002

(TIFF)

S2 Fig. Fold enrichment plots of enrichment versus nominal −log10(p)-values (corrected for inflation) in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) below the standard genome-wide association study threshold of p < 5 × 10−8 as a function of significance of association with 6 immune-mediated diseases.

The 6 immune-mediated diseases are Crohn disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), type 1 diabetes (T1D), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), celiac disease (CeD), and psoriasis (PSOR). The levels of −log10(p) > 0, −log10(p) > 1, and −log10(p) > 2 correspond to p < 1, p < 0.1, and p < 0.01, respectively. The dark blue line indicates all SNPs.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s003

(TIFF)

S3 Fig. Fold enrichment plots of enrichment versus nominal −log10(p)-values (corrected for inflation) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) below the standard genome-wide association study threshold of p < 5 × 10−8 as a function of significance of association with 6 immune-mediated diseases.

The 6 immune-mediated diseases are Crohn disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), type 1 diabetes (T1D), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), celiac disease (CeD), and psoriasis (PSOR). The levels of −log10(p) > 0, −log10(p) > 1, and −log10(p) > 2 correspond to p < 1, p < 0.1, and p < 0.01, respectively. The dark blue line indicates all SNPs.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s004

(TIFF)

S4 Fig. “Conjunction” Manhattan plot of conjunction and conditional −log10(FDR) values for corticobasal degeneration (CBD) given 6 immune-mediated diseases.

The 6 immune-mediated diseases are Crohn disease (CD; CBD|CD, red), ulcerative colitis (UC, CBD|UC, orange), type 1 diabetes (T1D, CBD|T1D, teal), rheumatoid arthritis (RA, CBD|RA, green), celiac disease (CeD, CBD|CeD, magenta), and psoriasis (PSOR, CBD|PSOR, blue). SNPs with conditional and conjunction −log10(FDR) > 1.3 (i.e., FDR < 0.05) are shown with large points. A black line around the large points indicates the most significant SNP in each linkage disequilibrium block, and this SNP was annotated with the closest gene, which is listed above the symbols in each locus.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s005

(TIFF)

S5 Fig. “Conjunction” Manhattan plot of conjunction and conditional −log10(FDR) values for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) given 6 immune-mediated diseases.

The 6 immune-mediated diseases are Crohn disease (CD; PSP|CD, red), ulcerative colitis (UC, PSP|UC, orange), type 1 diabetes (T1D, PSP|T1D, teal), rheumatoid arthritis (RA, PSP|RA, green), celiac disease (CeD, PSP|CeD, magenta), and psoriasis (PSOR, PSP|PSOR, blue). SNPs with conditional and conjunction −log10(FDR) > 1.3 (i.e., FDR < 0.05) are shown with large points. A black line around the large points indicates the most significant SNP in each linkage disequilibrium block, and this SNP was annotated with the closest gene, which is listed above the symbols in each locus.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s006

(TIFF)

S6 Fig. “Conjunction” Manhattan plot of conjunction and conditional −log10(FDR) values for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) given 6 immune-mediated diseases.

The 6 immune-mediated diseases are Crohn disease (CD; ALS|CD, red), ulcerative colitis (UC, ALS|UC, orange), type 1 diabetes (T1D, ALS|T1D, teal), rheumatoid arthritis (RA, ALS|RA, green), celiac disease (CeD, ALS|CeD, magenta), and psoriasis (PSOR, ALS|PSOR, blue). SNPs with conditional and conjunction −log10(FDR) > 1.3 (i.e., FDR < 0.05) are shown with large points. A black line around the large points indicates the most significant SNP in each linkage disequilibrium block, and this SNP was annotated with the closest gene, which is listed above the symbols in each locus.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s007

(TIFF)

S7 Fig. Individual bar plots showing cell-type-specific expression for LRRK2.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s008

(TIFF)

S8 Fig. Individual bar plots showing cell-type-specific expression for PGBD5.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s009

(TIFF)

S9 Fig. Individual bar plots showing cell-type-specific expression for TBKBP1.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s010

(TIFF)

S1 Table. Summary-data-based Mendelian randomization results.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s011

(DOCX)

S2 Table. Overlapping loci between CBD and immune-mediated diseases at a conjunction FDR < 0.05.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s012

(DOCX)

S3 Table. Overlapping loci between PSP and immune-mediated diseases at a conjunction FDR < 0.05.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s013

(DOCX)

S4 Table. Overlapping loci between ALS and immune-mediated diseases at a conjunction FDR < 0.05.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s014

(DOCX)

S5 Table. cis-eQTLs between FTD and immune-mediated disease shared risk SNPs and associated genes across a variety of tissues.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s015

(DOCX)

S6 Table. Physical interaction and gene co-expression networks for the pleiotropic genes with significant cis-eQTLs.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002487.s016

(DOCX)

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the IFGC for providing phase I summary statistics data for these analyses. Further acknowledgments for the IFGC are provided in S1 Acknowledgments.

References

  1. 1. Vieira RT, Caixeta L, Machado S, Silva AC, Nardi AE, Arias-Carrión O, et al. Epidemiology of early-onset dementia: a review of the literature. Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health. 2013;9(1):88–95.
  2. 2. Arnold SE, Han L-Y, Clark CM, Grossman M, Trojanowski JQ. Quantitative neurohistological features of frontotemporal degeneration. Neurobiol Aging. 2000;21(6):913–9. pmid:11124442
  3. 3. Lui H, Zhang J, Makinson S, Cahill M, Kelley K, Huang H, et al. Progranulin deficiency promotes circuit-specific synaptic pruning by microglia via complement activation. Cell. 2016;165(4):921–35. pmid:27114033
  4. 4. Yin F, Banerjee R, Thomas B, Zhou P, Qian L, Jia T, et al. Exaggerated inflammation, impaired host defense, and neuropathology in progranulin-deficient mice. J Exp Med. 2010;207(1):117–28. pmid:20026663
  5. 5. Ferrari R, Hernandez DG, Nalls MA, Rohrer JD, Ramasamy A, Kwok JB, et al. Frontotemporal dementia and its subtypes: a genome-wide association study. Lancet Neurol. 2014;13(7):686–99. pmid:24943344
  6. 6. Miller ZA, Rankin KP, Graff-Radford NR, Takada LT, Sturm VE, Cleveland CM, et al. TDP-43 frontotemporal lobar degeneration and autoimmune disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2013;84(9):956–62. pmid:23543794
  7. 7. Miller ZA, Sturm VE, Camsari GB, Karydas A, Yokoyama JS, Grinberg LT, et al. Increased prevalence of autoimmune disease within C9 and FTD/MND cohorts completing the picture. Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm. 2016;3(6):e301. pmid:27844039
  8. 8. Stearns FW. One hundred years of pleiotropy: a retrospective. Genetics. 2010;186(3):767–73. pmid:21062962
  9. 9. Olney NT, Spina S, Miller BL. Frontotemporal dementia. Neurol Clin. 2017;35(2):339–74. pmid:28410663
  10. 10. Josephs KA. Frontotemporal dementia and related disorders: deciphering the enigma. Ann Neurol. 2008;64(1):4–14. pmid:18668533
  11. 11. Franke A, McGovern DP, Barrett JC, Wang K, Radford-Smith GL, Ahmad T, et al. Genome-wide meta-analysis increases to 71 the number of confirmed Crohn’s disease susceptibility loci. Nat Genet. 2010;42(12):1118–25. pmid:21102463
  12. 12. Anderson CA, Boucher G, Lees CW, Franke A, D’Amato M, Taylor KD, et al. Meta-analysis identifies 29 additional ulcerative colitis risk loci, increasing the number of confirmed associations to 47. Nat Genet. 2011;43(3):246–52. pmid:21297633
  13. 13. Stahl EA, Raychaudhuri S, Remmers EF, Xie G, Eyre S, Thomson BP, et al. Genome-wide association study meta-analysis identifies seven new rheumatoid arthritis risk loci. Nat Genet. 2010;42(6):508–14. pmid:20453842
  14. 14. Barrett JC, Clayton DG, Concannon P, Akolkar B, Cooper JD, Erlich HA, et al. Genome-wide association study and meta-analysis find that over 40 loci affect risk of type 1 diabetes. Nat Genet. 2009;41(6):703–7. pmid:19430480
  15. 15. Dubois PC, Trynka G, Franke L, Hunt KA, Romanos J, Curtotti A, et al. Multiple common variants for celiac disease influencing immune gene expression. Nat Genet. 2010;42(4):295–302. pmid:20190752
  16. 16. Ellinghaus D, Ellinghaus E, Nair RP, Stuart PE, Esko T, Metspalu A, et al. Combined analysis of genome-wide association studies for Crohn disease and psoriasis identifies seven shared susceptibility loci. Am J Hum Genet. 2012;90(4):636–47. pmid:22482804
  17. 17. Neary D, Snowden JS, Gustafson L, Passant U, Stuss D, Black SA, et al. Frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a consensus on clinical diagnostic criteria. Neurology. 1998;51(6):1546–54. pmid:9855500
  18. 18. Kouri N, Ross OA, Dombroski B, Younkin CS, Serie DJ, Soto-Ortolaza A, et al. Genome-wide association study of corticobasal degeneration identifies risk variants shared with progressive supranuclear palsy. Nat Commun. 2015;6:7247. pmid:26077951
  19. 19. Dickson DW, Bergeron C, Chin SS, Duyckaerts C, Horoupian D, Ikeda K, et al. Office of Rare Diseases neuropathologic criteria for corticobasal degeneration. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2002;61(11):935–46. pmid:12430710
  20. 20. Höglinger GU, Melhem NM, Dickson DW, Sleiman PM, Wang L-S, Klei L, et al. Identification of common variants influencing risk of the tauopathy progressive supranuclear palsy. Nat Genet. 2011;43(7):699–705. pmid:21685912
  21. 21. van Rheenen W, Shatunov A, Dekker AM, McLaughlin RL, Diekstra FP, Pulit SL, et al. Genome-wide association analyses identify new risk variants and the genetic architecture of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Nat Genet. 2016;48(9):1043–8. pmid:27455348
  22. 22. Andreassen OA, Djurovic S, Thompson WK, Schork AJ, Kendler KS, O’Donovan MC, et al. Improved detection of common variants associated with schizophrenia by leveraging pleiotropy with cardiovascular-disease risk factors. Am J Hum Genet. 2013;92(2):197–209. pmid:23375658
  23. 23. Andreassen OA, Thompson WK, Schork AJ, Ripke S, Mattingsdal M, Kelsoe JR, et al. Improved detection of common variants associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder using pleiotropy-informed conditional false discovery rate. PLoS Genet. 2013;9(4):e1003455. pmid:23637625
  24. 24. Desikan RS, Schork AJ, Wang Y, Witoelar A, Sharma M, McEvoy LK, et al. Genetic overlap between Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease at the MAPT locus. Mol Psychiatry. 2015;20(12):1588–95. pmid:25687773
  25. 25. Yokoyama JS, Wang Y, Schork AJ, Thompson WK, Karch CM, Cruchaga C, et al. Association between genetic traits for immune-mediated diseases and Alzheimer disease. JAMA Neurol. 2016;73(6):691–7. pmid:27088644
  26. 26. Yokoyama JS, Karch CM, Fan CC, Bonham LW, Kouri N, Ross OA, et al. Shared genetic risk between corticobasal degeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy, and frontotemporal dementia. Acta Neuropathol. 2017;133(5):825–37. pmid:28271184
  27. 27. Ramasamy A, Trabzuni D, Guelfi S, Varghese V, Smith C, Walker R, et al. Genetic variability in the regulation of gene expression in ten regions of the human brain. Nat Neurosci. 2014;17(10):1418–28. pmid:25174004
  28. 28. Westra HJ, Peters MJ, Esko T, Yaghootkar H, Schurmann C, Kettunen J, et al. Systematic identification of trans eQTLs as putative drivers of known disease associations. Nat Genet. 2013;45(10):1238–43. pmid:24013639
  29. 29. Warde-Farley D, Donaldson SL, Comes O, Zuberi K, Badrawi R, Chao P, et al. The genemania prediction server: biological network integration for gene prioritization and predicting gene function. Nucleic Acids Res. 2010;38(Web Server issue):W214–20. pmid:20576703
  30. 30. Mostafavi S, Ray D, Warde-Farley D, Grouios C, Morris Q. GeneMANIA: a real-time multiple association network integration algorithm for predicting gene function. Genome Biol. 2008;9(Suppl 1):S4.
  31. 31. Chen-Plotkin AS, Geser F, Plotkin JB, Clark CM, Kwong LK, Yuan W, et al. Variations in the progranulin gene affect global gene expression in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Hum Mol Genet. 2008;17(10):1349–62. pmid:18223198
  32. 32. Zhang Y, Chen K, Sloan SA, Bennett ML, Scholze AR, O’Keeffe S, et al. An RNA-sequencing transcriptome and splicing database of glia, neurons, and vascular cells of the cerebral cortex. J Neurosci. 2014;34(36):11929–47. pmid:25186741
  33. 33. Zhu Z, Zhang F, Hu H, Bakshi A, Robinson MR, Powell JE, et al. Integration of summary data from GWAS and eQTL studies predicts complex trait gene targets. Nat Genet. 2016;48(5):481–7. pmid:27019110
  34. 34. Karch CM, Ezerskiy LA, Bertelsen S, Goate AM. Alzheimer’s disease risk polymorphisms regulate gene expression in the ZCWPW1 and the CELF1 loci. PLoS ONE. 2016;11(2):e0148717. pmid:26919393
  35. 35. Ishizawa K, Dickson DW. Microglial activation parallels system degeneration in progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2001;60(6):647–57. pmid:11398841
  36. 36. Dattola V, Famà F, Russo M, Calabrò RS, Logiudice AL, Grasso MG, et al. Multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a human leukocyte antigen challenge. Neurol Sci. 2017;38(8):1501–3. pmid:28421301
  37. 37. Toh H, Chitramuthu BP, Bennett HPJ, Bateman A. Structure, function, and mechanism of progranulin; the brain and beyond. J Mol Neurosci. 2011;45(3):538. pmid:21691802
  38. 38. Healy DG, Falchi M, O’Sullivan SS, Bonifati V, Durr A, Bressman S, et al. Phenotype, genotype, and worldwide genetic penetrance of LRRK2-associated Parkinson’s disease: a case-control study. Lancet Neurol. 2008;7(7):583–90. pmid:18539534
  39. 39. Barrett JC, Hansoul S, Nicolae DL, Cho JH, Duerr RH, Rioux JD, et al. Genome-wide association defines more than 30 distinct susceptibility loci for Crohn’s disease. Nat Genet. 2008;40(8):955–62. pmid:18587394
  40. 40. Ferrari R, Wang Y, Vandrovcova J, Guelfi S, Witeolar A, Karch CM, et al. Genetic architecture of sporadic frontotemporal dementia and overlap with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2017;88(2):152–64. pmid:27899424
  41. 41. Dächsel JC, Ross OA, Mata IF, Kachergus J, Toft M, Cannon A, et al. Lrrk2 G2019S substitution in frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin-immunoreactive neuronal inclusions. Acta Neuropathol. 2007;113(5):601–6. pmid:17151837
  42. 42. Moehle MS, Webber PJ, Tse T, Sukar N, Standaert DG, DeSilva TM, et al. LRRK2 inhibition attenuates microglial inflammatory responses. J Neurosci. 2012;32(5):1602–11. pmid:22302802
  43. 43. Bouwmeester T, Bauch A, Ruffner H, Angrand PO, Bergamini G, Croughton K, et al. A physical and functional map of the human tnf-alpha/nf-kappa B signal transduction pathway. Nat Cell Biol. 2004;6(2):97–105. pmid:14743216
  44. 44. Cirulli ET, Lasseigne BN, Petrovski S, Sapp PC, Dion PA, Leblond CS, et al. Exome sequencing in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis identifies risk genes and pathways. Science. 2015;347(6229):1436–41. pmid:25700176
  45. 45. Freischmidt A, Wieland T, Richter B, Ruf W, Schaeffer V, Müller K, et al. Haploinsufficiency of TBK1 causes familial ALS and fronto-temporal dementia. Nat Neurosci. 2015;18(5):631–6. pmid:25803835
  46. 46. Pottier C, Bieniek KF, Finch N, van de Vorst M, Baker M, Perkersen R, et al. Whole-genome sequencing reveals important role for TBK1 and OPTN mutations in frontotemporal lobar degeneration without motor neuron disease. Acta Neuropathol. 2015;130(1):77–92. pmid:25943890
  47. 47. Sjögren M, Folkesson S, Blennow K, Tarkowski E. Increased intrathecal inflammatory activity in frontotemporal dementia: pathophysiological implications. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2004;75(8):1107–11. pmid:15258209
  48. 48. Maphis N, Xu G, Kokiko-Cochran ON, Jiang S, Cardona A, Ransohoff RM, et al. Reactive microglia drive tau pathology and contribute to the spreading of pathological tau in the brain. Brain. 2015;138(6):1738–55.
  49. 49. Funk KE, Mirbaha H, Jiang H. Holtzman DM, Diamond MI. Distinct therapeutic mechanisms of tau antibodies. J Biol Chem. 2015;290(35):21652–62. pmid:26126828
  50. 50. Rizzu P, Van Swieten JC, Joosse M, Hasegawa M, Stevens M, Tibben A, et al. High prevalence of mutations in the microtubule-associated protein tau in a population study of frontotemporal dementia in the Netherlands. Am J Hum Genet. 1999;64(2):414–21. pmid:9973279