Applying polygenic risk scoring for psychiatric disorders to a large family with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder

Simone de Jong, Mateus Jose Abdalla Diniz, Andiara Saloma, Ary Gadelha, Marcos L. Santoro, Vanessa K. Ota, Cristiano Noto, Abdel Abdellaoui, Aartjan T.F. Beekman, Conor V. Dolan, Jouke Jan Hottenga, Rick Jansen, Hamdi Mbarek, Yuri Milaneschi, Michel G. Nivard, Danielle Posthuma, Dorret I. Boomsma, E. J.C. de Geus, Charles Curtis, Stephen J. NewhouseHamel Patel, Lynsey S. Hall, Paul F. O`Reilly, Sintia I. Belangero, Rodrigo A. Bressan, Gerome Breen*, Major Depressive Disorder and Bipolar Disorder Working Groups of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Psychiatric disorders are thought to have a complex genetic pathology consisting of interplay of common and rare variation. Traditionally, pedigrees are used to shed light on the latter only, while here we discuss the application of polygenic risk scores to also highlight patterns of common genetic risk. We analyze polygenic risk scores for psychiatric disorders in a large pedigree (n ~ 260) in which 30% of family members suffer from major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder. Studying patterns of assortative mating and anticipation, it appears increased polygenic risk is contributed by affected individuals who married into the family, resulting in an increasing genetic risk over generations. This may explain the observation of anticipation in mood disorders, whereby onset is earlier and the severity increases over the generations of a family. Joint analyses of rare and common variation may be a powerful way to understand the familial genetics of psychiatric disorders.

Original languageEnglish
Article number163
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalCommunications biology
Volume1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Oct 2018

Funding

We would like to thank the family members for their enthusiastic participation. We thank our ethics consultant Prof. Barbara Prainsack for insightful discussions. This paper represents independent research part-funded by FAPESP (2014/50830-2; 2010/08968-6), the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IRSES/ 295192), and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. SDJ is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant IF 658195. S.J.N. is also supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, and by awards establishing the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research at UCLPartners, from the Medical Research Council, Arthritis Research UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chief Scientist Office, Economic and Social Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, National Institute for Social Care and Health Research, and Wellcome Trust (grant MR/K006584/1). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the EU, the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. Competing Interests: G.B. has been a consultant in preclinical genomics and has received grant funding from Eli Lilly ltd within the last 3 years. A.G. has participated in advisory boards for Janssen-Cilag and Daiichi-Sankyo. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

FundersFunder number
Marie Curie International Research Staff ExchangeFP7-PEOPLE-2011-IRSES/ 295192
National Institute of Mental HealthU01MH109536
Eli Lilly and Company
National Institute for Social Care and Health Research
King’s College London
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Wellcome TrustMR/K006584/1
Horizon 2020 Framework ProgrammeIF 658195
Medical Research Council
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
National Institute for Health Research
British Heart Foundation
Cancer Research UK
Arthritis Research UK
Chief Scientist Office
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo2014/50830-2, 2010/08968-6
UCLH Biomedical Research Centre

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