Looking at inflammatory bowel diseases in East Asia reveals 81 new genes involved

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-05-09 01:00

Australia; International; QLD

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Most studies to date looking for genes involved in the inflammatory bowel diseases Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have investigated people of European ancestry only. But now, international scientists, including an Australian, have looked for genes in East Asian populations, identifying 80 areas of DNA involved in the conditions. When the researchers pooled the data from Europeans with the new info from East Asia, they identified a total of 320 areas of DNA that affect inflammatory bowel disease, 81 of which are new to science. The findings also suggest Crohn’s disease has a stronger hereditary component than ulcerative colitis. These new findings can be used to screen people for the diseases, based on how many of the implicated genes they carry, the researchers say.

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Journal/
conference: Nature Genetics

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Tongji University School of Medicine, China

Funder: Z.L. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91942312, 81630017). H.H. acknowledges support from NIDDK K01DK114379, NIDDK R01DK129364 and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. M.L. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81870389, 82070565). Y. Kakuta and Y. Kinouchi acknowledge support from JSPS KAKENHI (21K07884, 21K07955), the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) (JP18kk0305002) and Labour Sciences Research Grants for Research on Intractable Diseases from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan. Y. Kakuta, Y. Kawai, K.T. and M.N. acknowledge support from AMED (JP19km0405501). K.S. acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (2017R1A2A1A05001119, 2020R1A2C2003275). J.C. acknowledges support from NIDDK U24DK062429 and NIDDK U01DK062422. D.P.B.M. acknowledges the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and NIDDK U01DK062413. K.T. and M.N. acknowledge support from AMED (JP19km0405205). Part of the computations on JPN1 was performed on the NIG supercomputer at the ROIS National Institute of Genetics. Computations on SHA1 were performed in a supercomputing environment at the Digital Health China Technologies Corp. Ltd. We want to acknowledge the participants and investigators of the FinnGen study. The FinnGen project is funded by two grants from Business Finland (HUS 4685/31/2016 and UH 4386/31/2016) and the following industry partners: AbbVie Inc., AstraZeneca UK Ltd., Biogen MA Inc., Bristol Myers Squibb (and Celgene Corporation & Celgene International II Sàrl), Genentech Inc., Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp, Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Intellectual Property Development Ltd., Sanofi US Services Inc., Maze Therapeutics Inc., Janssen Biotech Inc., Novartis AG and Boehringer Ingelheim. The following biobanks are acknowledged for delivering biobank samples to FinnGen: Auria Biobank (www.auria.fi/biopankki), THL Biobank (www.thl.fi/biobank), Helsinki Biobank (www.helsinginbiopankki.fi), Biobank Borealis of Northern Finland (https://www.ppshp.fi/Tutkimus-ja-opetus/ Biopankki/Pages/Biobank-Borealis-briefly-in-English.aspx), Finnish Clinical Biobank Tampere (www.tays.fi/en-US/Research_and_ development/Finnish_Clinical_Biobank_Tampere), Biobank of Eastern Finland (www.ita-suomenbiopankki.fi/en), Central Finland Biobank (www.ksshp.fi/fi-FI/Potilaalle/Biopankki), Finnish Red Cross Blood Service Biobank (www.veripalvelu.fi/verenluovutus/ biopankkitoiminta) and Terveystalo Biobank (www.terveystalo.com/ fi/Yritystietoa/Terveystalo-Biopankki/Biopankki/). All Finnish Biobanks are members of BBMRI.fi infrastructure (www.bbmri.fi). Finnish Biobank Cooperative-FINBB (https://finbb.fi/) is the coordinator of BBMRI-ERIC operations in Finland. The Finnish biobank data can be accessed through the Fingenious services (https://site.fingenious.fi/ en/) managed by FINBB.

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