Effects of stressful life-events on DNA methylation in panic disorder and major depressive disorder

Abstract

Background Panic disorder (PD) is characterized by recurrent panic attacks and higher affection of women as compared to men. The lifetime prevalence of PD is about 2–3% in the general population leading to tremendous distress and disability. Etiologically, genetic and environmental factors, such as stress, contribute to the onset and relapse of PD. In the present study, we investigated epigenome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) in respond to a cumulative, stress-weighted life events score (wLE) in patients with PD and its boundary to major depressive disorder (MDD), frequently co-occurring with symptoms of PD. Methods DNAm was assessed by the Illumina HumanMethylation450 BeadChip. In a meta-analytic approach, epigenome-wide DNAm changes in association with wLE were first analyzed in two PD cohorts (with a total sample size of 183 PD patients and 85 healthy controls) and lastly in 102 patients with MDD to identify possible overlapping and opposing effects of wLE on DNAm. Additionally, analysis of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) was conducted to identify regional clusters of association. Results Two CpG-sites presented with p-values below 1 × 10−05 in PD: cg09738429 (p = 6.40 × 10−06, located in an intergenic shore region in next proximity of PYROXD1) and cg03341655 (p = 8.14 × 10−06, located in the exonic region of GFOD2). The association of DNAm at cg03341655 and wLE could be replicated in the independent MDD case sample indicating a diagnosis independent effect. Genes mapping to the top hits were significantly upregulated in brain and top hits have been implicated in the metabolic system. Additionally, two significant DMRs were identified for PD only on chromosome 10 and 18, including CpG-sites which have been reported to be associated with anxiety and other psychiatric phenotypes. Conclusion This first DNAm analysis in PD reveals first evidence of small but significant DNAm changes in PD in association with cumulative stress-weighted life events. Most of the top associated CpG-sites are located in genes implicated in metabolic processes supporting the hypothesis that environmental stress contributes to health damaging changes by affecting a broad spectrum of systems in the body.

Epigenetic timing effects on child developmental outcomes: A longitudinal meta-regression of findings from the Pregnancy And Childhood Epigenetics Consortium

“…Similarly, cg10644885 in ACP5 had a significant change (p=2.25*10 - 8 ) from no association with asthma at birth (β birth =-0.56, SE=1.19, p=0.64) to genome-wide significance in childhood (β childhood= -15.00, SE=2.29, p=5.57*10 - 11 ). In addition, cg22708087 in FRY changed from a positive association with asthma at birth (β birth =7.47, SE=1.80, p=3.42*10 - 5 ) to a negative association in childhood (β childhood =-12.64, SE=3.32, p=1.44*10 - 4 ). This change was genome-wide significant (p=1.06*10 - 7 ).…”

“…DNAm is influenced by both genetic 1,2 and environmental factors, beginning in utero (e.g. maternal smoking, 3 stressful life events 4 , air pollution, 5 or physical activity 6 ). Alterations in DNAm have also been linked to a wide range of health outcomes across childhood, including asthma 7 , attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) 8 , and body mass index (BMI) 9 .…”

Epigenetic Association Analyses and Risk Prediction of RLS

“…For the enrichment analyses of CpG sites with blood–brain correlation, we restricted the background to the 307,651 sites that could be assessed for such correlation at BECon (see earlier). We set the significance cut‐off at FDR of 5% and a required overlap of at least 10 genes in order to match the settings of Czamara et al 20 However, we also considered smaller overlaps if the analyzed EWAS results comprised fewer than 10 genes with Entrez ID. Analogous gene‐based enrichment analyses were performed with the DMR‐related gene sets.…”

The Interplay of Epigenetic, Genetic, and Traditional Risk Factors on Blood Pressure: Findings from the Health and Retirement Study

“…A growing body of evidence suggests that DNA methylation levels at specific cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites are associated with hypertension [ 6 , 7 ] and related risk factors and co-morbidities such as obesity [ 8 , 9 ] and type 2 diabetes [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Evidence of differential DNA methylation has also been reported for lifestyle and behavioral factors that can influence BP, including smoking [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], exercise [ 17 ], and stress [ 18 , 19 ]. Moreover, the epigenome may be a mediator of socioeconomic and neighborhood influences on health [ 20 ].…”