ABSTRACT
Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is a common syndrome of genetic generalized epilepsies (GGEs). Linkage and association studies suggest that the gene encoding the bromodomain-containing protein 2 (BRD2) may increase risk of JME. The present methylation and association study followed up a recent report highlighting that the BRD2 promoter CpG island (CpG76) is differentially hypermethylated in lymphoblastoid cells from Caucasian patients with JME compared to patients with other GGE subtypes and unaffected relatives. In contrast, we found a uniform low average percentage of methylation (<4.5%) for 13 CpG76-CpGs in whole blood cells from 782 unrelated European Caucasians, including 116 JME patients, 196 patients with genetic absence epilepsies, and 470 control subjects. We also failed to confirm an allelic association of the BRD2 promoter single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs3918149 with JME (Armitage trend test, P = 0.98), and we did not detect a substantial impact of SNP rs3918149 on CpG76 methylation in either 116 JME patients (methylation quantitative trait loci [meQTL], P = 0.29) or 470 German control subjects (meQTL, P = 0.55). Our results do not support the previous observation that a high DNA methylation level of the BRD2 promoter CpG76 island is a prevalent epigenetic motif associated with JME in Caucasians.
Subject(s)
CpG Islands/genetics , DNA Methylation , Myoclonic Epilepsy, Juvenile/genetics , Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics , Transcription Factors/genetics , Epilepsy, Absence/epidemiology , Epilepsy, Absence/genetics , Europe , Female , Humans , Leukocytes/chemistry , Male , Myoclonic Epilepsy, Juvenile/blood , Myoclonic Epilepsy, Juvenile/epidemiology , Polymorphism, Single NucleotideABSTRACT
Genetic generalised epilepsy (GGE) is the most common form of genetic epilepsy, accounting for 20% of all epilepsies. Genomic copy number variations (CNVs) constitute important genetic risk factors of common GGE syndromes. In our present genome-wide burden analysis, large (≥ 400 kb) and rare (< 1%) autosomal microdeletions with high calling confidence (≥ 200 markers) were assessed by the Affymetrix SNP 6.0 array in European case-control cohorts of 1,366 GGE patients and 5,234 ancestry-matched controls. We aimed to: 1) assess the microdeletion burden in common GGE syndromes, 2) estimate the relative contribution of recurrent microdeletions at genomic rearrangement hotspots and non-recurrent microdeletions, and 3) identify potential candidate genes for GGE. We found a significant excess of microdeletions in 7.3% of GGE patients compared to 4.0% in controls (P = 1.8 x 10-7; OR = 1.9). Recurrent microdeletions at seven known genomic hotspots accounted for 36.9% of all microdeletions identified in the GGE cohort and showed a 7.5-fold increased burden (P = 2.6 x 10-17) relative to controls. Microdeletions affecting either a gene previously implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders (P = 8.0 x 10-18, OR = 4.6) or an evolutionarily conserved brain-expressed gene related to autism spectrum disorder (P = 1.3 x 10-12, OR = 4.1) were significantly enriched in the GGE patients. Microdeletions found only in GGE patients harboured a high proportion of genes previously associated with epilepsy and neuropsychiatric disorders (NRXN1, RBFOX1, PCDH7, KCNA2, EPM2A, RORB, PLCB1). Our results demonstrate that the significantly increased burden of large and rare microdeletions in GGE patients is largely confined to recurrent hotspot microdeletions and microdeletions affecting neurodevelopmental genes, suggesting a strong impact of fundamental neurodevelopmental processes in the pathogenesis of common GGE syndromes.
