1. Genetic variants for head size share genes and pathways with cancer.
- Author
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Knol MJ, Poot RA, Evans TE, Satizabal CL, Mishra A, Sargurupremraj M, van der Auwera S, Duperron MG, Jian X, Hostettler IC, van Dam-Nolen DHK, Lamballais S, Pawlak MA, Lewis CE, Carrion-Castillo A, van Erp TGM, Reinbold CS, Shin J, Scholz M, Håberg AK, Kämpe A, Li GHY, Avinun R, Atkins JR, Hsu FC, Amod AR, Lam M, Tsuchida A, Teunissen MWA, Aygün N, Patel Y, Liang D, Beiser AS, Beyer F, Bis JC, Bos D, Bryan RN, Bülow R, Caspers S, Catheline G, Cecil CAM, Dalvie S, Dartigues JF, DeCarli C, Enlund-Cerullo M, Ford JM, Franke B, Freedman BI, Friedrich N, Green MJ, Haworth S, Helmer C, Hoffmann P, Homuth G, Ikram MK, Jack CR Jr, Jahanshad N, Jockwitz C, Kamatani Y, Knodt AR, Li S, Lim K, Longstreth WT, Macciardi F, Mäkitie O, Mazoyer B, Medland SE, Miyamoto S, Moebus S, Mosley TH, Muetzel R, Mühleisen TW, Nagata M, Nakahara S, Palmer ND, Pausova Z, Preda A, Quidé Y, Reay WR, Roshchupkin GV, Schmidt R, Schreiner PJ, Setoh K, Shapland CY, Sidney S, St Pourcain B, Stein JL, Tabara Y, Teumer A, Uhlmann A, van der Lugt A, Vernooij MW, Werring DJ, Windham BG, Witte AV, Wittfeld K, Yang Q, Yoshida K, Brunner HG, Le Grand Q, Sim K, Stein DJ, Bowden DW, Cairns MJ, Hariri AR, Cheung CL, Andersson S, Villringer A, Paus T, Cichon S, Calhoun VD, Crivello F, Launer LJ, White T, Koudstaal PJ, Houlden H, Fornage M, Matsuda F, Grabe HJ, Ikram MA, Debette S, Thompson PM, Seshadri S, and Adams HHH
- Subjects
- Humans, Female, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide genetics, Genetic Variation, Organ Size genetics, Signal Transduction genetics, Adult, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Head anatomy & histology, Neoplasms genetics, Neoplasms pathology
- Abstract
The size of the human head is highly heritable, but genetic drivers of its variation within the general population remain unmapped. We perform a genome-wide association study on head size (N = 80,890) and identify 67 genetic loci, of which 50 are novel. Neuroimaging studies show that 17 variants affect specific brain areas, but most have widespread effects. Gene set enrichment is observed for various cancers and the p53, Wnt, and ErbB signaling pathways. Genes harboring lead variants are enriched for macrocephaly syndrome genes (37-fold) and high-fidelity cancer genes (9-fold), which is not seen for human height variants. Head size variants are also near genes preferentially expressed in intermediate progenitor cells, neural cells linked to evolutionary brain expansion. Our results indicate that genes regulating early brain and cranial growth incline to neoplasia later in life, irrespective of height. This warrants investigation of clinical implications of the link between head size and cancer., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests H.H. and I.C.H. received funding from Alzheimer’s Research UK and the Dunhill Medical Trust Foundation. M.A.P. reported receiving grants and personal and travel fees from Roche, Novartis, Merck, and Biogen outside the submitted work. M. Scholz receives funding from Pfizer Inc. for a project not related to this research. C.D. serves as a consultant of Novartis Pharmaceuticals. B.F. has received educational speaking fees from Medice. N.J. and P.M.T. are MPIs of a research grant from Biogen Inc. for work unrelated to the contents of this manuscript. D.J.W. received funding from the Stroke Foundation/British Heart Foundation. D.J.S. has received consultancy honoraria from Discovery Vitality, Johnson & Johnson, Kanna, L’Oreal, Lundbeck, Orion, Sanofi, Servier, Takeda, and Vistagen. H.H. received funding from MRC, Wellcome Trust, and NIHR UCLH BRC. H.J.G. has received travel grants and speaker’s honoraria from Fresenius Medical Care, Neuraxpharm, and Janssen Cilag as well as research funding from Fresenius Medical Care., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2024
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