Genome-wide association study identified INSC gene associated with Trail Making Test Part A and Alzheimer's disease related cognitive phenotypes

The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: The Trail Making Test (TMT) Part A (TMT-A) is a good measure of performance on cognitive processing speed. This study aimed to perform a genome-wide association study of TMT-A in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: A total of 757 individuals with TMT-A phenotypes and 620,901 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were extracted from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative 1 (ADNI-1) cohort. AD related cognitive phenotypes include TMT-A, TMT-B, Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ), Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), and Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale–Cognitive Subscale 13 (ADAS13). Multivariable linear regression analysis of TMT-A was conducted using PLINK software. The most TMT-A associated gene was tested with Color Trails Test 1 Form A (CTTA), a culturally fair analog of the TMT-A. Functional annotation of SNPs was performed using the RegulomeDB and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) databases. Results: The best signal with TMT-A was rs1108010 (p = 4.34 × 10−8) at 11p15.2 within INSC gene, which was also associated with TMT-B, FAQ, CDR-SB, and ADAS13 (p = 2.47 × 10−4, 8.56 × 10−3, 0.0127 and 0.0188, respectively). Furthermore, suggestive loci were identified such as FOXD2 and CLTA with TMT-A, GBP1/GBP3 with TMT-B, GRIK2 with FAQ, BAALC and CCDC146 with CDR-SB, BAALC and NKAIN2 with ADAS13. Additionally, the best SNP within INSC associated with CTTA was rs7931705 (p = 6.15 × 10−5). Several SNPs had significant eQTLs using GTEx. Conclusions: We identified several genes/loci associated with TMT-A and AD related phenotypes. These findings offer the potential for new insights into the pathogenesis of cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease.

Original languageEnglish
Article number110393
JournalProgress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
Volume111
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Dec 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Cognitive functioning
  • Genome-wide association study
  • INSC
  • Trail making test
  • eQTLs

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