Genetic discoveries of Alzheimer’s disease are the drivers of our understanding, and together with polygenetic risk stratification can contribute towards planning of feasible and efficient preventive and curative clinical trials. We first perform a large genetic association study by merging all available case-control datasets and by-proxy study results (discovery n = 409,435 and validation size n = 58,190). Here, we add six variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk (near APP, CHRNE, PRKD3/NDUFAF7, PLCG2 and two exonic variants in the SHARPIN gene). Assessment of the polygenic risk score and stratifying by APOE reveal a 4 to 5.5 years difference in median age at onset of Alzheimer’s disease patients in APOE ɛ4 carriers. Because of this study, the underlying mechanisms of APP can be studied to refine the amyloid cascade and the polygenic risk score provides a tool to select individuals at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Introduction: Large variability among Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases might impact genetic discoveries and complicate dissection of underlying biological pathways. Methods: Genome Research at Fundacio ACE (GR@ACE) is a genome-wide study of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes, defined based on AD's clinical certainty and vascular burden. We assessed the impact of known AD loci across endophenotypes to generate loci categories. We incorporated gene coexpression data and conducted pathway analysis per category. Finally, to evaluate the effect of heterogeneity in genetic studies, GR@ACE series were meta-analyzed with additional genome-wide association study data sets. Results: We classified known AD loci into three categories, which might reflect the disease clinical heterogeneity. Vascular processes were only detected as a causal mechanism in probable AD. The meta-analysis strategy revealed the ANKRD31-rs4704171 and NDUFAF6-rs10098778 and confirmed SCIMP-rs7225151 and CD33-rs3865444. Discussion: The regulation of vasculature is a prominent causal component of probable AD. GR@ACE meta-analysis revealed novel AD genetic signals, strongly driven by the presence of clinical heterogeneity in the AD series.

The Drosophila wings-up A gene encodes Troponin I. Two regions, located upstream of the transcription initiation site (upstream regulatory element) and in the first intron (intron regulatory element), regulate gene expression in specific developmental and muscle type domains. Based on LacZ reporter expression in transgenic lines, upstream regulatory element and intron regulatory element yield identical expression patterns. Both elements are required for full expression levels in vivo as indicated by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assays. Three myocyte enhancer factor-2 binding sites have been functionally characterized in each regulatory element. Using exon specific probes, we show that transvection is based on transcriptional changes in the homologous chromosome and that Zeste and Suppressor of Zeste 3 gene products act as repressors for wings-up A. Critical regions for transvection and for Zeste effects are defined near the transcription initiation site. After in silico analysis in insects (Anopheles and Drosophila pseudoobscura) and vertebrates (Ratus and Coturnix), the regulatory organization of Drosophila seems to be conserved. Troponin I (TnI) is expressed before muscle progenitors begin to fuse, and sarcomere morphogenesis is affected by TnI depletion as Z discs fail to form, revealing a novel developmental role for the protein or its transcripts. Also, abnormal stoichiometry among TnI isoforms, rather than their absolute levels, seems to cause the functional muscle defects. INTRODUCTIONContractile protein systems are widely represented in most cell types as a force generator device (Davison et al., 2000). In muscles, troponin I (TnI) is a key element in the protein complex that regulates sliding of thin over thick filaments (Farah and Reinach, 1995;Geeves and Lehrer, 1998;Squire and Morris, 1998;Maytum et al., 2003). Several TnI protein isoforms are generated, either from transcription of independent genes (e.g., vertebrates) or from differential splicing of a single gene primary transcript (e.g., Drosophila). Amino acid substitutions in constitutive or alternatively spliced exons in TnI can lead to pathological conditions such as familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (Carrier et al., 1993;Coonar and McKenna, 1997) and distal arthrogryposis (Sung et al., 2003), due to abnormal interactions with other sarcomere components. Also, TnI is a relevant indicator of heart failure (Lewinter and Vanburen, 2002) and a potent angiogenesis inhibitor through its interaction with polycystin-2 (Li et al., 2003). The potential applications that this knowledge could provide, however, are handicapped by the scant information on the regulatory mechanisms of TnI gene expression. This issue is particularly relevant in the context of future gene therapy strategies and justifies this in vivo study of the regulatory mechanism of the Drosophila homologue. In addition, this study takes advantage of the fact that TnI in Drosophila is encoded by a single gene, wings up A (wupA), and that isoform replacem...