BACKGROUND Asthma exacerbations are a major cause of morbidity and medical cost. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to identify genetic predictors of exacerbations in subjects with asthma. METHODS We performed GWAS meta analysis of acute asthma exacerbation in two pediatric clinical trials: Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP, n=581) and Childhood Asthma Research and Education (CARE, n=205) network trials. Acute asthma exacerbations was defined as treatment with a five-day course of oral steroids. We obtained a replication cohort from BioVU (n=786), the Vanderbilt University electronic medical record-linked DNA biobank. We used CD4+ lymphocyte genome-wide mRNA expression profiling to identify associations of top SNPs with mRNA abundance of nearby genes. RESULTS A locus in CTNNA3 reached genome-wide significance (rs7915695, p=2.19*10-8, mean exacerbations 6.05 for minor alleles vs. 3.71 for homozygous major). Among four top SNPs replicated in BioVU, rs993312 in SEMA3D was significant (p=0.0083), and displayed stronger association among African Americans (p=0.0004 in BioVU, mean exacerbations 3.91 vs. 1.53; p=0.0089 in CAMP, mean exacerbations 6.0 vs. 3.25). CTNNA3 variants did not replicate in BioVU. A regulatory variant in the CTNNA3 locus was associated with CTNNA3 mRNA expression in CD4+ cells from asthmatics (p=0.00079). CTNNA3 appears to be active in immune response, and SEMA3D has a plausible role in airway remodeling. We also provide a replication of a previous association of P2RX7 with asthma exacerbation. CONCLUSIONS We identified two loci associated with exacerbations through GWAS. CTNNA3 met genome-wide significance thresholds and SEMA3D replicated in a clinical Biobank database.

Background Inhaled corticosteroids are the most commonly used controller therapies for asthma, producing treatment responses in six clinical phenotypes; lung function, bronchodilator response, airway responsiveness, symptoms, need for oral steroids and frequency of emergency department visits and hospitalizations. We hypothesize that treatment response in all of these phenotypes is modulated by a single, quantative corticosteroid responsiveness endophenotype. Objective To develop a composite phenotype that combines multiple clinical phenotypes to measure corticosteroid responsiveness with high accuracy, high stability across populations, and high robustness to missing data. Methods We employed principal component analysis (PCA) to determine a composite corticosteroid responsiveness phenotype that we tested in four replication populations. We evaluated the relative accuracy with which the composite and clinical phenotypes measure the endophenotype using treatment effect area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results In the study population, the composite phenotype measured the endophenotype with an AUC of 0.74, significantly exceeding the AUCs of the six individual clinical phenotypes, which ranged from 0.56 (p-value <.001) to 0.67 (p-value 0.015). In four replication populations with a total of 22 clinical phenotypes available, the composite phenotype AUC ranged from 0.69 to 0.73, significantly exceeded the AUCs of 14 phenotypes, and was not significantly exceeded by any single phenotype. Conclusion The composite phenotype measured the endophenotype with higher accuracy, higher stability across populations, and higher robustness to missing data than any clinical phenotype. This should provide the capability to model corticosteroid pharmacologic response and resistance with increased accuracy and reproducibility.

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are the most effective controller medications for asthma, and variability in ICS response is associated with genetic variation. Despite ICS treatment, some patients with poor asthma control experience severe asthma exacerbations, defined as a hospitalization or emergency room visit. We hypothesized that some individuals may be at increased risk of asthma exacerbations, despite ICS use, due to genetic factors. A GWAS of 237,726 common, independent markers was conducted in 806 Caucasian asthmatic patients from two population‐based biobanks: BioVU, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Tennessee (369 patients), and Personalized Medicine Research Project (PMRP) at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin (437 patients). Using a case–control study design, the association of each SNP locus with the outcome of asthma exacerbations (defined as asthma‐related emergency department visits or hospitalizations concurrent with oral corticosteroid use), was evaluated for each population by logistic regression analysis, adjusting for age, gender and the first four principal components. A meta‐analysis of the results was conducted. Validation of expression of selected candidate genes was determined by evaluating an independent microarray expression data set. Our study identified six novel SNPs associated with differential risk of asthma exacerbations (P < 10−05). The top GWAS result, rs2395672 in CMTR1, was associated with an increased risk of exacerbations in both populations (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.03–1.11; joint P = 2.3 × 10−06). Two SNPs (rs2395672 and rs279728) were associated with increased risk of exacerbations, while the remaining four SNPs (rs4271056, rs6467778, rs2691529, and rs9303988) were associated with decreased risk. Three SNPs (rs2395672, rs6467778, and rs2691529) were present in three genes: CMTR1, TRIM24 and MAGI2. The CMTR1 mRNA transcript was significantly differentially expressed in nasal lavage samples from asthmatics during acute exacerbations, suggesting potential involvement of this gene in the development of this phenotype. We show that genetic variability may contribute to asthma exacerbations in patients taking ICS. Furthermore, our studies implicate CMTR1 as a novel candidate gene with potential roles in the pathogenesis of asthma exacerbations.

With this systems-based approach, we have shown that FAM129A is associated with variation in clinical asthma steroid responsiveness and that FAM129A modulates steroid responsiveness in lung epithelial cells.