Genetic Meta-Analysis of Diagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease Identifies New Risk Loci and Implicates Aβ, Tau, Immunity and Lipid Processing

Abstract

Risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), the most prevalent dementia, is partially driven by genetics. To identify LOAD risk loci, we performed the largest genome-wide association meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed LOAD to date (94,437 individuals). We confirm 20 previous LOAD risk loci and identify five new genome-wide loci (IQCK, ACE, ADAM10, ADAMTS1 and WWOX). Fine-mapping of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region confirms the neurological and immune-mediated disease haplotype HLA-DR15 as a risk factor for LOAD. Pathway analysis implicates immunity, lipid metabolism, tau binding proteins and APP metabolism, showing that genetic variants affecting APP and Aβ processing are not only associated with early-onset autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease but also with LOAD. Analysis of risk genes and pathways show enrichment for rare variants (P=1.32x10-7) indicating that additional rare variants remain to be identified. We also identify important genetic correlations between LOAD and traits such as family history of dementia and education.