0000000000215115

AUTHOR

Peter Lohse

Identification and prevention of genotyping errors caused by G-quadruplex- and i-motif-like sequences.

Abstract Background: Reliable PCR amplification of DNA fragments is the prerequisite for most genetic assays. We investigated the impact of G-quadruplex– or i-motif–like sequences on the reliability of PCR-based genetic analyses. Methods: We found the sequence context of a common intronic polymorphism in the MEN1 gene (multiple endocrine neoplasia I) to be the cause of systematic genotyping errors by inducing preferential amplification of one allelic variant [allele dropout (ADO)]. Bioinformatic analyses and pyrosequencing-based allele quantification enabled the identification of the underlying DNA structures. Results: We showed that G-quadruplex– or i-motif–like sequences can reproducibly …

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Genome-wide significant association of ANKRD55 rs6859219 and multiple sclerosis risk.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a genetically complex disease that shares a substantial proportion of risk loci with other autoimmune diseases.1 Along these lines, ANKRD55 , originally implicated in rheumatoid arthritis, was recently reported as a potential novel MS risk gene (rs6859219, p=1.9×10−7).2 Here, we comprehensively validated this effect in independent datasets comprising 8846 newly genotyped subjects from Germany and France as well as 5003 subjects from two genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Upon meta-analysis of all available data (19 686 subjects), ANKRD55 rs6859219 now shows compelling evidence for association with MS at genome-wide significance (OR=1.19, p=3.1×10−11). Our stu…

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Closing the case ofAPOEin multiple sclerosis: no association with disease risk in over 29 000 subjects: Figure 1

Background Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs429358 (e4) and rs7412 (e2), both invoking changes in the amino-acid sequence of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene, have previously been tested for association with multiple sclerosis (MS) risk. However, none of these studies was sufficiently powered to detect modest effect sizes at acceptable type-I error rates. As both SNPs are only imperfectly captured on commonly used microarray genotyping platforms, their evaluation in the context of genome-wide association studies has been hindered until recently. Methods We genotyped 12 740 subjects hitherto not studied for their APOE status, imputed raw genotype data from 8739 subjects from five ind…

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Genome-wide significant association with seven novel multiple sclerosis risk loci

Objective A recent large-scale study in multiple sclerosis (MS) using the ImmunoChip platform reported on 11 loci that showed suggestive genetic association with MS. Additional data in sufficiently sized and independent data sets are needed to assess whether these loci represent genuine MS risk factors. Methods The lead SNPs of all 11 loci were genotyped in 10 796 MS cases and 10 793 controls from Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Russia, that were independent from the previously reported cohorts. Association analyses were performed using logistic regression based on an additive model. Summary effect size estimates were calculated using fixed-effect meta-analysis. Results…

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Antihistamine-resistant Angioedema in Women with Negative Family History: Estrogens and F12 Gene Mutations

Abstract Background In women with sporadic recurrent angioedema with an unknown cause who are unresponsive to antihistamines and have normal C1 inhibitor activity and a negative family history of angioedema, it is unclear whether they have idiopathic angioedema or hereditary angioedema with normal C1 inhibitor, and what impact exogenous estrogens have on their angioedema. Methods A cohort of 147 women was analyzed for F12 exon 9 mutations and for the influence of oral contraceptives, hormonal replacement therapy, and pregnancy on their angioedema. Results A total of 142 women had idiopathic angioedema unresponsive to antihistamines. Five women had an F12 mutation and thereby hereditary angi…

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Analysis of Plasminogen Genetic Variants in Multiple Sclerosis Patients.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a prevalent neurological disease of complex etiology. Here, we describe the characterization of a multi-incident MS family that nominated a rare missense variant (p.G420D) in plasminogen (PLG) as a putative genetic risk factor for MS. Genotyping of PLG p.G420D (rs139071351) in 2160 MS patients, and 886 controls from Canada, identified 10 additional probands, two sporadic patients and one control with the variant. Segregation in families harboring the rs139071351 variant, identified p.G420D in 26 out of 30 family members diagnosed with MS, 14 unaffected parents, and 12 out of 30 family members not diagnosed with disease. Despite considerably reduced penetrance, lin…

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