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Systemic immunosuppression is a risk factor for melanoma, and sunburn-induced immunosuppression is thought to be causal. Genes in immunosuppression pathways are therefore candidate melanoma-susceptibility genes. If variants within these genes individually have a small effect on disease risk, the association may be undetected in genome-wide association (GWA) studies due to low power to reach a high significance level. Pathway-based approaches have been suggested as a method of incorporating a priori knowledge into the analysis of GWA studies. In this study, the association of 1113 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 43 genes (39 genomic regions) related to immunosuppression have been analysed using a gene-set approach in 1539 melanoma cases and 3917 controls from the GenoMEL consortium GWA study. The association between melanoma susceptibility and the whole set of tumour-immunosuppression genes, and also predefined functional subgroups of genes, was considered. The analysis was based on a measure formed by summing the evidence from the most significant SNP in each gene, and significance was evaluated empirically by case-control label permutation. An association was found between melanoma and the complete set of genes (p(emp)=0.002), as well as the subgroups related to the generation of tolerogenic dendritic cells (p(emp)=0.006) and secretion of suppressive factors (p(emp)=0.0004), thus providing preliminary evidence of involvement of tumour-immunosuppression gene polymorphisms in melanoma susceptibility. The analysis was repeated on a second phase of the GenoMEL study, which showed no evidence of an association. As one of the first attempts to replicate a pathway-level association, our results suggest that low power and heterogeneity may present challenges.
Pubmed ID: 22216283 RIS Download
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Consortium of 50 research groups across the UK to harness the power of newly-available genotyping technologies to improve our understanding of the aetiological basis of several major causes of global disease. The consortium has gathered genotype data for up to 500,000 sites of genome sequence variation (single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs) in samples ascertained for the disease phenotypes. Analysis of the genome-wide association data generated has lead to the identification of many SNPs and genes showing evidence of association with disease susceptibility, some of which will be followed up in future studies. In addition, the Consortium has gained important insights into the technical, analytical, methodological and biological aspects of genome-wide association analysis. The core of the study comprised an analysis of 2,000 samples from each of seven diseases (type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, bipolar disorder, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease). For each disease, the case samples have been ascertained from sites widely distributed across Great Britain, allowing us to obtain considerable efficiencies by comparing each of these case populations to a common set of 3,000 nationally-ascertained controls also from England, Scotland and Wales. These controls come from two sources: 1,500 are representative samples from the 1958 British Birth Cohort and 1,500 are blood donors recruited by the three national UK Blood Services. One of the questions that the WTCCC study has addressed relates to the relative merits of these alternative strategies for the generation of representative population cohorts. Genotyping for this main Case Control study was conducted by Affymetrix using the (commercial) Affymetrix 500K chip. As part of this study a total of 17,000 samples were typed for 500,000 SNPs. There are two additional components to the study. First, the WTCCC award is part-funding a study of host resistance to infectious diseases in African populations. The same approach has been used to type 2,000 cases of tuberculosis (TB) and 2,000 cases of malaria, as well as 2,000 shared controls. As well as addressing diseases of major global significance, and extending WTCCC coverage into the area of infectious disease, the inclusion of samples of African origin has obvious benefits with respect to methodological aspects of genome-wide association analysis. Second, the WTCCC has, for four additional diseases (autoimmune thyroid disease, breast cancer, ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis), completed an analysis of 15,000 SNPs designed to represent a large proportion of the known non-synonymous coding SNPs across the genome. This analysis has been performed at the WTSI using a custom Infinium chip (Illumina). Data release The genotypic data of the control samples (1958 British Birth Cohort and UK Blood Service) and from seven diseases analyzed in the main study are now available to qualified researchers. Summary genotype statistics for these collections are available directly from the website. Access to the individual-level genotype data and summary genotype statistics is by application to the Consortium Data Access Committee (CDAC) and approval subject to a Data Access Agreement. WTCCC2: A further round of GWA studies were funded in April 2008. These include 15 WTCCC-collaborative studies and 12 independent studies be supported totaling approximately 120,000 samples. Many of the studies represent major international collaborative networks that have together assembled large sample collections. WTCCC2 will perform genome-wide association studies in 13 disease conditions: Ankylosing spondylitis, Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma, glaucoma, ischaemic stroke, multiple sclerosis, pre-eclampsia, Parkinson's disease, psychosis endophenotypes, psoriasis, schizophrenia, ulcerative colitis and visceral leishmaniasis. WTCCC2 will also investigate the genetics of reading and mathematics abilities in children and the pharmacogenomics of statin response. Over 60,000 samples will be analyzed using either the Affymetrix v6.0 chip or the Illumina 660K chip. The WTCCC2 will also genotype 3,000 controls each from the 1958 British Birth cohort and the UK Blood Service control group, and the 6,000 controls will be genotyped on both the Affymetrix v6.0 and Illumina 1.2M chips. WTCCC3: The Wellcome Trust has provided support for a further round of GWA studies in January 2009. These include 5 WTCCC-collaborative studies to be carried out in WTCCC3 and 5 independent studies, across a range of diseases. Many of the studies represent major international collaborative networks that have together assembled large sample collections. WTCCC3 will perform genome-wide association studies in the following 4 disease conditions: primary biliary cirrhosis, anorexia nervosa, pre-eclampsia in UK subjects, and the interactions between donor and recipient DNA related to early and late renal transplant dysfunction. The WTCCC3 will also carry out a pilot in a study of the genetics of host control of HIV-1 infection. Over 40,000 samples will be analyzed using the Illumina 660K chip. The WTCCC3 will utilize the 6,000 control genotypes generated by the WTCCC2.
View all literature mentionsOpen source whole genome association analysis toolset, designed to perform range of basic, large scale analyses in computationally efficient manner. Used for analysis of genotype/phenotype data. Through integration with gPLINK and Haploview, there is some support for subsequent visualization, annotation and storage of results. PLINK 1.9 is improved and second generation of the software.
View all literature mentionsDatabase as central repository for both single base nucleotide substitutions and short deletion and insertion polymorphisms. Distinguishes report of how to assay SNP from use of that SNP with individuals and populations. This separation simplifies some issues of data representation. However, these initial reports describing how to assay SNP will often be accompanied by SNP experiments measuring allele occurrence in individuals and populations. Community can contribute to this resource.
View all literature mentionsTHIS RESOURCE IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE, documented August 22, 2016. A multi-country collaboration among scientists and funding agencies to develop a public resource where genetic similarities and differences in human beings are identified and catalogued. Using this information, researchers will be able to find genes that affect health, disease, and individual responses to medications and environmental factors. All of the information generated by the Project will be released into the public domain. Their goal is to compare the genetic sequences of different individuals to identify chromosomal regions where genetic variants are shared. Public and private organizations in six countries are participating in the International HapMap Project. Data generated by the Project can be downloaded with minimal constraints. HapMap project related data, software, and documentation include: bulk data on genotypes, frequencies, LD data, phasing data, allocated SNPs, recombination rates and hotspots, SNP assays, Perlegen amplicons, raw data, inferred genotypes, and mitochondrial and chrY haplogroups; Generic Genome Browser software; protocols and information on assay design, genotyping and other protocols used in the project; and documentation of samples/individuals and the XML format used in the project.
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