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Dna methylation meta-analysis reveals cellular alterations in psychosis and markers of treatment-resistant schizophrenia

  • CRESTAR consortium
  • , Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2
  • University of Exeter
  • University College London
  • Utrecht University
  • St James's Hospital
  • King's College London
  • South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
  • University of Galway
  • Trinity College Dublin
  • University of Oxford
  • Karolinska Institutet
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  • University of Helsinki
  • University of Manitoba
  • Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
  • University of the Highlands and Islands
  • Friedrich Schiller University Jena
  • University of Marburg
  • Cardiff University
  • Maastricht University
  • University of Aberdeen
  • National Institute for Health and Welfare
  • Bilkent University
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Eli Lilly
  • University of Essex

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We performed a systematic analysis of blood DNA methylation profiles from 4,483 participants from seven independent cohorts identifying differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with psychosis, schizophrenia and treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Psychosis cases were characterized by significant differences in measures of blood cell proportions and elevated smoking exposure derived from the DNA methylation data, with the largest differences seen in treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients. We implemented a stringent pipeline to meta-analyze epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) results across datasets, identifying 95 DMPs associated with psychosis and 1,048 DMPs associated with schizophrenia, with evidence of colocalization to regions nominated by genetic association studies of disease. Many schizophrenia-associated DNA methylation differences were only present in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, potentially reflecting exposure to the atypical antipsychotic clozapine. Our results highlight how DNA methylation data can be leveraged to identify physiological (e.g., differential cell counts) and environmental (e.g., smoking) factors associated with psychosis and molecular biomarkers of treatment-resistant schizophrenia.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere58430
Pages (from-to)1-53
Number of pages53
JournaleLife
Volume10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2021

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