Epilepsy subtype-specific copy number burden observed in a genome-wide study of 17 458 subjects.

TitleEpilepsy subtype-specific copy number burden observed in a genome-wide study of 17 458 subjects.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2020
AuthorsNiestroj, L-M, Perez-Palma, E, Howrigan, DP, Zhou, Y, Cheng, F, Saarentaus, E, Nürnberg, P, Stevelink, R, Daly, MJ, Palotie, A, Lal, D
Corporate AuthorsEpi25 Collaborative
JournalBrain
Volume143
Issue7
Pagination2106-2118
Date Published2020 07 01
ISSN1460-2156
KeywordsDNA Copy Number Variations, Epilepsy, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male
Abstract

Cytogenic testing is routinely applied in most neurological centres for severe paediatric epilepsies. However, which characteristics of copy number variants (CNVs) confer most epilepsy risk and which epilepsy subtypes carry the most CNV burden, have not been explored on a genome-wide scale. Here, we present the largest CNV investigation in epilepsy to date with 10 712 European epilepsy cases and 6746 ancestry-matched controls. Patients with genetic generalized epilepsy, lesional focal epilepsy, non-acquired focal epilepsy, and developmental and epileptic encephalopathy were included. All samples were processed with the same technology and analysis pipeline. All investigated epilepsy types, including lesional focal epilepsy patients, showed an increase in CNV burden in at least one tested category compared to controls. However, we observed striking differences in CNV burden across epilepsy types and investigated CNV categories. Genetic generalized epilepsy patients have the highest CNV burden in all categories tested, followed by developmental and epileptic encephalopathy patients. Both epilepsy types also show association for deletions covering genes intolerant for truncating variants. Genome-wide CNV breakpoint association showed not only significant loci for genetic generalized and developmental and epileptic encephalopathy patients but also for lesional focal epilepsy patients. With a 34-fold risk for developing genetic generalized epilepsy, we show for the first time that the established epilepsy-associated 15q13.3 deletion represents the strongest risk CNV for genetic generalized epilepsy across the whole genome. Using the human interactome, we examined the largest connected component of the genes overlapped by CNVs in the four epilepsy types. We observed that genetic generalized epilepsy and non-acquired focal epilepsy formed disease modules. In summary, we show that in all common epilepsy types, 1.5-3% of patients carry epilepsy-associated CNVs. The characteristics of risk CNVs vary tremendously across and within epilepsy types. Thus, we advocate genome-wide genomic testing to identify all disease-associated types of CNVs.

DOI10.1093/brain/awaa171
Alternate JournalBrain
PubMed ID32568404
PubMed Central IDPMC7364765
Grant List09/144/09 / DH / Department of Health / United Kingdom
G0800637 / MR / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
T32 HG009495 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
UM1 HG008895 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States