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Lookup NU author(s): Dr David Lewis-Smith
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc. 2024. Identifying genetic risk factors for highly heterogeneous disorders such as epilepsy remains challenging. Here we present, to our knowledge, the largest whole-exome sequencing study of epilepsy to date, with more than 54,000 human exomes, comprising 20,979 deeply phenotyped patients from multiple genetic ancestry groups with diverse epilepsy subtypes and 33,444 controls, to investigate rare variants that confer disease risk. These analyses implicate seven individual genes, three gene sets and four copy number variants at exome-wide significance. Genes encoding ion channels show strong association with multiple epilepsy subtypes, including epileptic encephalopathies and generalized and focal epilepsies, whereas most other gene discoveries are subtype specific, highlighting distinct genetic contributions to different epilepsies. Combining results from rare single-nucleotide/short insertion and deletion variants, copy number variants and common variants, we offer an expanded view of the genetic architecture of epilepsy, with growing evidence of convergence among different genetic risk loci on the same genes. Top candidate genes are enriched for roles in synaptic transmission and neuronal excitability, particularly postnatally and in the neocortex. We also identify shared rare variant risk between epilepsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Our data can be accessed via an interactive browser, hopefully facilitating diagnostic efforts and accelerating the development of follow-up studies.
Author(s): Epi25 Collaborative
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Nature Neuroscience
Year: 2024
Volume: 27
Issue: 10
Pages: 1864-1879
Online publication date: 03/10/2024
Acceptance date: 01/08/2024
ISSN (print): 1097-6256
ISSN (electronic): 1546-1726
Publisher: Springer Nature
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01747-8
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-024-01747-8
PubMed id: 39363051
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