A computational tool (H-MAGMA) for improved prediction of brain-disorder risk genes by incorporating brain chromatin interaction profiles

Nat Neurosci. 2020 Apr;23(4):583-593. doi: 10.1038/s41593-020-0603-0. Epub 2020 Mar 9.

Abstract

Most risk variants for brain disorders identified by genome-wide association studies reside in the noncoding genome, which makes deciphering biological mechanisms difficult. A commonly used tool, multimarker analysis of genomic annotation (MAGMA), addresses this issue by aggregating single nucleotide polymorphism associations to nearest genes. Here we developed a platform, Hi-C-coupled MAGMA (H-MAGMA), that advances MAGMA by incorporating chromatin interaction profiles from human brain tissue across two developmental epochs and two brain cell types. By analyzing gene regulatory relationships in the disease-relevant tissue, H-MAGMA identified neurobiologically relevant target genes. We applied H-MAGMA to five psychiatric disorders and four neurodegenerative disorders to interrogate biological pathways, developmental windows and cell types implicated for each disorder. Psychiatric-disorder risk genes tended to be expressed during mid-gestation and in excitatory neurons, whereas neurodegenerative-disorder risk genes showed increasing expression over time and more diverse cell-type specificities. H-MAGMA adds to existing analytic frameworks to help identify the neurobiological principles of brain disorders.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Brain / metabolism*
  • Brain Diseases / genetics*
  • Brain Diseases / metabolism
  • Chromatin / metabolism*
  • Genetic Predisposition to Disease*
  • Genomics
  • Humans
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide*
  • Risk Factors

Substances

  • Chromatin