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Rheumatoid arthritis research shows potential of large-scale genetic studies for drug discovery

Date:
December 26, 2013
Source:
RIKEN
Summary:
The results of the largest international study to date into the genetic basis of rheumatoid arthritis have shed light on the biology of the disease and provide evidence that large-scale genetic studies can assist in the identification of new drugs for complex disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis.
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The results of the largest international study to date into the genetic basis of rheumatoid arthritis shed light on the biology of the disease and provide evidence that large-scale genetic studies can assist in the identification of new drugs for complex disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis.

The study, conducted by Dr. Robert M. Plenge from the Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute in the USA and Dr. Yukinori Okada from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan, collaborating with colleagues from 70 institutions worldwide, is published in the journal Nature.

Genome-wide association studies are a method employed by scientists to identify the genes contributing to human disease. The current Nature study is the first to demonstrate that integrating the information provided by genome-wide association studies with existing datasets of genomic and biological information, such as drug targets, can assist in the discovery of drugs to cure human disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease leading to inflammation of the joints and affecting 0.5-1% of adults in the developed world. The disease is thought to be caused by a complex combination of genetic and environmental factors and several genes have been shown to be associated with the disease. However, most of the findings were based on single population studies, and no large-scale trans-ethnic study had been carried out to date.

The international team performed a genome-wide association study meta-analysis on a total of over 100,000 subjects of European and Asian descent -- 29,880 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 73,758 controls -- by analysing around 10 million genetic variants called single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs). They identified 42 new regions in the genome (loci) that are associated with rheumatoid arthritis, bringing the total number of known rheumatoid arthritis loci to 101.

By conducting bioinformatics studies integrating existing datasets with this new information, the researchers were able to pinpoint 98 genes in these 101 loci that could potentially contribute to the onset of rheumatoid arthritis. By integrating their findings with existing drug databases they demonstrate that these genes indeed possess many overlapping regions with the genes targeted by approved rheumatoid arthritis drugs -- although this wasn't known when the drugs were developed. The team identify existing drugs used to treat cancer that also target rheumatoid arthritis genes and could potentially be used as therapy for the disease, such as CDK4/6 inhibitors.

The bioinformatics study also reveals that there is significant overlap between the genes involved in rheumatoid arthritis, human primary immunodeficiency disorders and blood cancers.

"This study sheds light on the fundamental genes, pathways and cell types that contribute to the onset of rheumatoid arthritis and provides evidence that the genetics of rheumatoid arthritis can provide important information for drug discovery," conclude the authors.

"While there are previous anecdotal examples, our study provides a systematic approach by which human genetic data can be efficiently integrated with other biological information to derive biological insights and drug discovery," they add.


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Materials provided by RIKEN. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Yukinori Okada, Di Wu, Gosia Trynka, Towfique Raj, Chikashi Terao, Katsunori Ikari, Yuta Kochi, Koichiro Ohmura, Akari Suzuki, Shinji Yoshida, Robert R. Graham, Arun Manoharan, Ward Ortmann, Tushar Bhangale, Joshua C. Denny, Robert J. Carroll, Anne E. Eyler, Jeffrey D. Greenberg, Joel M. Kremer, Dimitrios A. Pappas, Lei Jiang, Jian Yin, Lingying Ye, Ding-Feng Su, Jian Yang, Gang Xie, Ed Keystone, Harm-Jan Westra, Tõnu Esko, Andres Metspalu, Xuezhong Zhou, Namrata Gupta, Daniel Mirel, Eli A. Stahl, Dorothée Diogo, Jing Cui, Katherine Liao, Michael H. Guo, Keiko Myouzen, Takahisa Kawaguchi, Marieke J. H. Coenen, Piet L. C. M. van Riel, Mart A. F. J. van de Laar, Henk-Jan Guchelaar, Tom W. J. Huizinga, Philippe Dieudé, Xavier Mariette, S. Louis Bridges Jr, Alexandra Zhernakova, Rene E. M. Toes, Paul P. Tak, Corinne Miceli-Richard, So-Young Bang, Hye-Soon Lee, Javier Martin, Miguel A. Gonzalez-Gay, Luis Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Solbritt Rantapää-Dahlqvist, Lisbeth Ärlestig, Hyon K. Choi, Yoichiro Kamatani, Pilar Galan, Mark Lathrop, Steve Eyre, John Bowes, Anne Barton, Niek de Vries, Larry W. Moreland, Lindsey A. Criswell, Elizabeth W. Karlson, Atsuo Taniguchi, Ryo Yamada, Michiaki Kubo, Jun S. Liu, Sang-Cheol Bae, Jane Worthington, Leonid Padyukov, Lars Klareskog, Peter K. Gregersen, Soumya Raychaudhuri, Barbara E. Stranger, Philip L. De Jager, Lude Franke, Peter M. Visscher, Matthew A. Brown, Hisashi Yamanaka, Tsuneyo Mimori, Atsushi Takahashi, Huji Xu, Timothy W. Behrens, Katherine A. Siminovitch, Shigeki Momohara, Fumihiko Matsuda, Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Robert M. Plenge. Genetics of rheumatoid arthritis contributes to biology and drug discovery. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12873

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RIKEN. "Rheumatoid arthritis research shows potential of large-scale genetic studies for drug discovery." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 December 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131226115233.htm>.
RIKEN. (2013, December 26). Rheumatoid arthritis research shows potential of large-scale genetic studies for drug discovery. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131226115233.htm
RIKEN. "Rheumatoid arthritis research shows potential of large-scale genetic studies for drug discovery." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131226115233.htm (accessed March 18, 2024).

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