[Identification of novel genetic loci associated with major depressive disorder and the hippocampus in a European population using the condFDR method].

Abstract

Objective: To identify additional loci associated with depression and the hippocampus (HIP) through genome-wide association study.

Methods: The depression-related genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta summary data was downloaded from the official website of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, which had involved 170 756 cases and 329 443 controls. The left and right hippocampal volume GWAS data sets were downloaded from the UK Biobank, which involved 33 224 participants. The conditional false discovery rate (condFDR) was used to identify novel genetic loci for depression and left and right hippocampal volumes, and a conjunctional false discovery rate (conjFDR) was used to evaluate the enrichment of pleiotropic loci between depression and left and right hippocampal volumes.

Results: Respectively, 7, 13, and 12 new loci have been associated with depression, left hippocampal volume and right hippocampal volume, with a significant threshold of condFDR < 0.01. A site of rs1267073 locus was found to be shared by the depression and right hippocampal volume with a threshold of conjFDR < 0.01.

Conclusion: Above findings have provided more insights into the genetic mechanisms underlying the volume of hippocampus and the risk for depression. The results may also provide evidence for future clinical trials for treating depression.