TY - JOUR TI - Identification of genetic risk factors in the Chinese population implicates a role of immune system in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis AV - public Y1 - 2018/02/20/ EP - 1706 N2 - Alzheimer?s disease (AD) is a leading cause of mortality among the elderly. We performed a whole-genome sequencing study of AD in the Chinese population. In addition to the variants identified in or around the APOE locus (sentinel variant rs73052335, P = 1.44 × 10?14), two common variants, GCH1 (rs72713460, P = 4.36 × 10?5 ) and KCNJ15 (rs928771, P = 3.60 × 10?6 ), were identified and further verified for their possible risk effects for AD in three small non-Asian AD cohorts. Genotype?phenotype analysis showed that KCNJ15 variant rs928771 affects the onset age of AD, with earlier disease onset in minor allele carriers. In addition, altered expression level of the KCNJ15 transcript can be observed in the blood of AD subjects. Moreover, the risk variants of GCH1 and KCNJ15 are associated with changes in their transcript levels in specific tissues, as well as changes of plasma biomarkers levels in AD subjects. Importantly, network analysis of hippocampus and blood transcriptome datasets suggests that the risk variants in the APOE, GCH1, and KCNJ15 loci might exert their functions through their regulatory effects on immune-related pathways. Taking these data together, we identified common variants of GCH1 and KCNJ15 in the Chinese population that contribute to AD risk. These variants may exert their functional effects through the immune system. ID - discovery10045023 PB - NATL ACAD SCIENCES KW - Alzheimer's disease KW - whole-genome sequencing KW - GWAS KW - risk variant KW - immune KW - DOPA-RESPONSIVE DYSTONIA KW - GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION KW - SICKLE-CELL-ANEMIA KW - PARKINSONS-DISEASE KW - PERIPHERAL-BLOOD KW - JAPANESE POPULATION KW - SUSCEPTIBILITY GENE KW - NATIONAL INSTITUTE KW - SEQUENCE DATA KW - AMYLOID-BETA VL - 115 SP - 1697 IS - 8 N1 - This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial No Derivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1715554115 SN - 0027-8424 JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America A1 - Zhou, X A1 - Chen, Y A1 - Mok, KY A1 - Zhao, Q A1 - Chen, K A1 - Chen, Y A1 - Hardy, J A1 - Li, Y A1 - Fu, AKY A1 - Guo, Q A1 - Ip, NY ER -