Genome-wide association study identifies variants in the CFH region associated with host susceptibility to meningococcal disease.

Davila, Sonia
Wright, Victoria J
Khor, Chiea Chuen
Sim, Kar Seng
Binder, Alexander
Breunis, Willemijn B
Inwald, David
Nadel, Simon
Betts, Helen
Carrol, Enitan D
de Groot, Ronald
Hermans, Peter WM
Hazelzet, Jan
Emonts, Marieke
Lim, Chui Chin
Kuijpers, Taco W
Martinon-Torres, Federico
Salas, Antonio
Zenz, Werner
Levin, Michael
Hibberd, Martin L
International Meningococcal Genetics Consortium

Publication date

January 2010

DOI

10.1038/ng.640

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Abstract

Meningococcal disease is an infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis. Genetic factors contribute to host susceptibility and progression to disease, but the genes responsible for disease development are largely unknown. We report here a genome-wide association study for host susceptibility to meningococcal disease using 475 individuals with meningococcal disease (cases) and 4,703 population controls from the UK. We performed, in Western European and South European cohorts (consisting of 968 cases and 1,376 controls), two replication studies for the most significant SNPs. A cluster of complement factor SNPs replicated independently in both cohorts, including SNPs within complement factor H (CFH) (rs1065489 (p.936D<E), P = 2.2 x 10(-11)) and...