International genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new primary biliary cirrhosis risk loci and targetable pathogenic pathways.
Cordell HJ., Han Y., Mells GF., Li Y., Hirschfield GM., Greene CS., Xie G., Juran BD., Zhu D., Qian DC., Floyd JAB., Morley KI., Prati D., Lleo A., Cusi D., Canadian-US PBC Consortium None., Italian PBC Genetics Study Group None., UK-PBC Consortium None., Gershwin ME., Anderson CA., Lazaridis KN., Invernizzi P., Seldin MF., Sandford RN., Amos CI., Siminovitch KA.
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a classical autoimmune liver disease for which effective immunomodulatory therapy is lacking. Here we perform meta-analyses of discovery data sets from genome-wide association studies of European subjects (n=2,764 cases and 10,475 controls) followed by validation genotyping in an independent cohort (n=3,716 cases and 4,261 controls). We discover and validate six previously unknown risk loci for PBC (Pcombined<5 × 10(-8)) and used pathway analysis to identify JAK-STAT/IL12/IL27 signalling and cytokine-cytokine pathways, for which relevant therapies exist.