ORCID Profile
0000-0001-6470-7919
Current Organisation
University College London
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-09-2018
DOI: 10.1002/ANA.25308
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 08-10-2018
DOI: 10.1101/437657
Abstract: Genetic analysis of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease risk has previously identified a network of largely microglial genes that form a transcriptional network. In transgenic mouse models of amyloid deposition we have previously shown that the expression of many of the mouse orthologs of these genes are co-ordinately up-regulated by amyloid deposition. Here we investigate whether systematic analysis of other members of this mouse amyloid-responsive network predicts other Alzheimer’s risk loci. This statistical comparison of the mouse amyloid-response network with Alzheimer’s disease genome-wide association studies identifies 5 other genetic risk loci for the disease ( OAS1, CXCL10, LAPTM5, ITGAM and LILRB4 ). This work suggests that genetic variability in the microglial response to amyloid deposition is a major determinant for Alzheimer’s risk. Identification of 5 new risk loci for Alzheimer’s by statistical comparison of mouse Aβ microglial response with gene-based SNPs from human GWAS
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-02-2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 09-11-2023
Abstract: Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common age-related neurodegenerative disorders. Although predominantly a motor disorder, cognitive impairment and dementia are important features of Parkinson’s disease, particularly in the later stages of the disease. However, the rate of cognitive decline varies among Parkinson’s disease patients, and the genetic basis for this heterogeneity is incompletely understood. To explore the genetic factors associated with rate of progression to Parkinson’s disease dementia, we performed a genome-wide survival meta-analysis of 3923 clinically diagnosed Parkinson’s disease cases of European ancestry from four longitudinal cohorts. In total, 6.7% of in iduals with Parkinson’s disease developed dementia during study follow-up, on average 4.4 ± 2.4 years from disease diagnosis. We have identified the APOE ε4 allele as a major risk factor for the conversion to Parkinson’s disease dementia [hazard ratio = 2.41 (1.94–3.00), P = 2.32 × 10−15], as well as a new locus within the ApoE and APP receptor LRP1B gene [hazard ratio = 3.23 (2.17–4.81), P = 7.07 × 10−09]. In a candidate gene analysis, GBA variants were also identified to be associated with higher risk of progression to dementia [hazard ratio = 2.02 (1.21–3.32), P = 0.007]. CSF biomarker analysis also implicated the amyloid pathway in Parkinson’s disease dementia, with significantly reduced levels of amyloid β42 (P = 0.0012) in Parkinson’s disease dementia compared to Parkinson’s disease without dementia. These results identify a new candidate gene associated with faster conversion to dementia in Parkinson's disease and suggest that amyloid-targeting therapy may have a role in preventing Parkinson’s disease dementia.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 10-07-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.07.07.22277297
Abstract: There are 90 genetic risk variants for Parkinson’s disease (PD) but currently only five nominated loci for PD progression. The biology of PD progression is likely to be of central importance in defining mechanisms that can be used to develop new treatments. We studied 6,766 PD patients, over 15,340 visits with a mean follow-up of between 4.2 and 15.7 years and carried out a genome wide survival study for time to a motor progression endpoint, defined by reaching Hoehn and Yahr stage 3 or greater, and death (mortality). There was a robust effect of the APOE ε4 allele on mortality in PD. We identified three novel loci for mortality and motor progression, and nominated genes based on physical proximity and/or expression quantitative trait loci data. One locus within the TBXAS1 gene encoding thromboxane A synthase 1 was associated with mortality in PD (HR = 2.04 [95% CI 1.63 to 2.56], p-value = 7.71 x 10 -10 ). Another locus near the SYT10 gene encoding synaptotagmin 10 was associated with mortality just above genome-wide significance (HR=1.36 [95% CI 1.21 to 1.51], p-value=5.31×10 -8 ). We also report 4 independent loci associated with motor progression: the top locus within MORN1 (HR=2.76 [95% CI 1.97 to 3.87], p-value=3.1×10 -9 ), the second most significant locus near ASNS , the third most significant locus near PDE5A , and a fourth locus within XPO1 . We have nominated causal genes based on physical position, however we also discuss other possible causal genes based on expression quantitative trait loci, colocalization analysis, and tagging of rare variants. Only the non-Gaucher disease causing GBA1 PD risk variant E326K, of the known PD risk variants, was associated with mortality in PD. We report six novel loci associated with PD motor progression or mortality. Further work is needed to understand the links between these genomic variants and the underlying disease biology. However, thromboxane synthesis, vesicular peptidergic neurotransmitter release, and phosphodiesterase inhibition may represent new candidates for disease modification in PD. Parkinson’s UK, Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s through the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-03-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41531-023-00472-6
Abstract: Open science and collaboration are necessary to facilitate the advancement of Parkinson’s disease (PD) research. Hackathons are collaborative events that bring together people with different skill sets and backgrounds to generate resources and creative solutions to problems. These events can be used as training and networking opportunities, thus we coordinated a virtual 3-day hackathon event, during which 49 early-career scientists from 12 countries built tools and pipelines with a focus on PD. Resources were created with the goal of helping scientists accelerate their own research by having access to the necessary code and tools. Each team was allocated one of nine different projects, each with a different goal. These included developing post-genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analysis pipelines, downstream analysis of genetic variation pipelines, and various visualization tools. Hackathons are a valuable approach to inspire creative thinking, supplement training in data science, and foster collaborative scientific relationships, which are foundational practices for early-career researchers. The resources generated can be used to accelerate research on the genetics of PD.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 11-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.10.28.22281645
Abstract: There is a pressing need to understand the biology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) progression and to identify biological pathways as possible therapeutic targets. To identify genomic variation associated with PD motor presentation and early stage progression. GWAS meta-analysis of early PD motor progression, from multiple longitudinal cohorts, using MDS-UPDRS III clinical assessments. Multicentre 3572 unrelated European ancestry in iduals diagnosed with PD from 6 studies. Linear mixed effect models under an additive model corrected for age at diagnosis, gender, and the first 5 genetic principal components (PCs), with axial, limb, and total MDS-UPDRS III as outcomes of the model. We identified an association between the PD axial rate of progression and variation at the GJA5 locus at 1q12 (Beta = -0.25, SE = 0.04, P = 3.4e-10). Exploration of the regulation of gene expression in the region (cis-eQTL analysis) showed that the lead variant was associated with expression of ACP6 , a lysophosphatidic acid phosphatase that regulates mitochondrial lipid biosynthesis (cis-eQTLs p-values in blood and brain RNA expression datasets: 10 −8 in eQTLGen and 10 −7 in PsychEncode). In addition, we found a nominal association between axial motor presentation and the MAD1L1 gene at 7q21.11 (Beta = 0.54, SE = 0.11, P = 1.6e-7), a gene previously associated with neuropsychiatric disease, and in the long non-coding RNA LINC00511 at 17q21.31 (Beta = -0.62, SE = 0.11, P = 6.3e-8). Further functional annotation allowed us to nominate the likely causal variants and determine that variants at 7q21.11 may be related to dysregulation of MAD1L1 expression. Variants at LINC00511 may cause a disruption of a distal epigenetic regulation of SOX9 through an anchored chromatin loop. Our large multicentre study sheds new light on the genetic architecture of PD progression, which is distinct from PD susceptibility. Our study highlights the potential role of mitochondrial lipid homeostasis in the progression of PD, which may be important in establishing new drug targets to tackle disease progression.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-05-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-04-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41531-019-0076-6
Abstract: Parkinson’s disease (PD), with its characteristic loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and deposition of α-synuclein in neurons, is often considered a neuronal disorder. However, in recent years substantial evidence has emerged to implicate glial cell types, such as astrocytes and microglia. In this study, we used stratified LD score regression and expression-weighted cell-type enrichment together with several brain-related and cell-type-specific genomic annotations to connect human genomic PD findings to specific brain cell types. We found that PD heritability attributable to common variation does not enrich in global and regional brain annotations or brain-related cell-type-specific annotations. Likewise, we found no enrichment of PD susceptibility genes in brain-related cell types. In contrast, we demonstrated a significant enrichment of PD heritability in a curated lysosomal gene set highly expressed in astrocytic, microglial, and oligodendrocyte subtypes, and in LoF-intolerant genes, which were found highly expressed in almost all tested cellular subtypes. Our results suggest that PD risk loci do not lie in specific cell types or in idual brain regions, but rather in global cellular processes detectable across several cell types.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 21-10-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.10.21.513169
Abstract: The human genome contains numerous duplicated regions, such as parent-pseudogene pairs, causing sequencing reads to align equally well to either gene. The extent to which this ambiguity complicates transcriptomic analyses is currently unknown. This is concerning as many parent genes have been linked to disease, including GBA1, causally linked to both Parkinson’s and Gaucher disease. We find that most of the short sequencing reads that map to GBA1 , also map to its pseudogene, GBAP1 . Using long-read RNA-sequencing in human brain, where all reads mapped uniquely, we demonstrate significant differences in expression compared to short-read data. We identify novel transcripts from both GBA1 and GBAP1 , including protein-coding transcripts that are translated in vitro and detected in proteomic data, but that lack GCase activity. By combining long-read with single-nuclear RNA-sequencing to analyse brain-relevant cell types we demonstrate that transcript expression varies by brain region with cell-type-selectivity. Taken together, these results suggest a non-lysosomal function for both GBA1 and GBAP1 in brain. Finally, we demonstrate that inaccuracies in annotation are widespread among parent genes, with implications for many human diseases.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 25-05-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.05.23.22275465
Abstract: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common age-related neurodegenerative disorders. Although predominantly a motor disorder, cognitive impairment and dementia are important features of PD, particularly in the later stages of the disease. However, the rate of cognitive decline varies widely among PD patients, and the genetic basis for this heterogeneity is incompletely understood. Here, we have analysed 3,964 clinically diagnosed PD cases to explore the genetic factors associated with rate of progression to PD dementia. Genome-wide survival analysis identified the APOE- ε4 allele as a major risk factor for the conversion to PD dementia, as well as three new loci , including the ApoE and APP receptor LRP1B. Biomarker analysis also implicates the amyloid pathway in PD dementia, suggesting that amyloid-targeting therapy may have an important role in preventing PDD.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Regina Reynolds.