Epigenetic outlier profiles in depression: A genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of monozygotic twins

PLoS One. 2018 Nov 20;13(11):e0207754. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207754. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Recent discoveries highlight the importance of stochastic epigenetic changes, as indexed by epigenetic outlier DNA methylation signatures, as a valuable tool to understand aberrant cell function and subsequent human pathology. There is evidence of such changes in different complex disorders as diverse as cancer, obesity and, to a lesser extent, depression. The current study was aimed at identifying outlying DNA methylation signatures of depressive psychopathology. Here, genome-wide DNA methylation levels were measured (by means of Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 Beadchip) in peripheral blood of thirty-four monozygotic twins informative for depressive psychopathology (lifetime DSM-IV diagnoses). This dataset was explored to identify outlying epigenetic signatures of depression, operationalized as extreme hyper- or hypo-methylation in affected co-twins from discordant pairs that is not observed across the rest of the study sample. After adjusting for blood cell count, there were thirteen CpG sites across which depressed co-twins from the discordant pairs exhibited outlying DNA methylation signatures. None of them exhibited a methylation outlier profile in the concordant and healthy pairs, and some of these loci spanned genes previously associated with neuropsychiatric phenotypes, such as GHSR and KCNQ1. This exploratory study provides preliminary proof-of-concept validation that epigenetic outlier profiles derived from genome-wide DNA methylation data may be related to depression risk.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • CpG Islands / genetics
  • DNA Methylation*
  • Depression / genetics*
  • Epigenesis, Genetic*
  • Female
  • Genomics*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Twins, Monozygotic / genetics*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Spanish SAF2008-05674-C03-01, European Twins Study Network on Schizophrenia Research Training Network (grant number EUTwinsS; MRTN-CT-2006-035987), the Catalan 2017SGR1577 and the Ministry of Science and Innovation (PIM2010ERN-00642) in frame of ERA-NET NEURON. Thanks to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (ES-EUEpiBrain project, grant SAF2015-71526-REDT). This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI15/00097) – Ayuda cofinanciada por el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), “Una manera de hacer Europa”. Helena Palma-Gudiel was supported by the Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2017FI_B2_00057). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.