DNA methylation study of Huntington's disease and motor progression in patients and in animal models

Nat Commun. 2020 Sep 10;11(1):4529. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18255-5.

Abstract

Although Huntington's disease (HD) is a well studied Mendelian genetic disorder, less is known about its associated epigenetic changes. Here, we characterize DNA methylation levels in six different tissues from 3 species: a mouse huntingtin (Htt) gene knock-in model, a transgenic HTT sheep model, and humans. Our epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of human blood reveals that HD mutation status is significantly (p < 10-7) associated with 33 CpG sites, including the HTT gene (p = 6.5 × 10-26). These Htt/HTT associations were replicated in the Q175 Htt knock-in mouse model (p = 6.0 × 10-8) and in the transgenic sheep model (p = 2.4 × 10-88). We define a measure of HD motor score progression among manifest HD cases based on multiple clinical assessments. EWAS of motor progression in manifest HD cases exhibits significant (p < 10-7) associations with methylation levels at three loci: near PEX14 (p = 9.3 × 10-9), GRIK4 (p = 3.0 × 10-8), and COX4I2 (p = 6.5 × 10-8). We conclude that HD is accompanied by profound changes of DNA methylation levels in three mammalian species.

Publication types

  • Multicenter Study
  • Observational Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Behavior, Animal
  • CpG Islands / genetics
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • DNA Methylation*
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Disease Progression
  • Epigenesis, Genetic*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Gene Knock-In Techniques
  • Genetic Loci
  • Genome-Wide Association Study
  • Global Burden of Disease
  • Humans
  • Huntingtin Protein / genetics*
  • Huntington Disease / blood
  • Huntington Disease / diagnosis
  • Huntington Disease / epidemiology
  • Huntington Disease / genetics*
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Middle Aged
  • Mutation
  • Prospective Studies
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics
  • Registries / statistics & numerical data
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Sheep
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • HTT protein, human
  • Htt protein, mouse
  • Huntingtin Protein
  • Recombinant Proteins