Qiao-Ling Wang1, Wen-Le Tan1, Yan-Jie Zhao1, Ming-Ming Shao1, Jia-Hui Chu1, Xu-Dong Huang1, Jun Li1, Ying-Ying Luo1, Lin-Na Peng1, Qiong-Hua Cui1, Ting Feng1, Jie Yang1, Ya-Ling Han1
1Department of Etiology and Carcinogenesis, National Cancer Center/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China
Tóm tắt
AbstractSince the first report of a genome‐wide association study (GWAS) on human age‐related macular degeneration, GWAS has successfully been used to discover genetic variants for a variety of complex human diseases and/or traits, and thousands of associated loci have been identified. However, the underlying mechanisms for these loci remain largely unknown. To make these GWAS findings more useful, it is necessary to perform in‐depth data mining. The data analysis in the post‐GWAS era will include the following aspects: fine‐mapping of susceptibility regions to identify susceptibility genes for elucidating the biological mechanism of action; joint analysis of susceptibility genes in different diseases; integration of GWAS, transcriptome, and epigenetic data to analyze expression and methylation quantitative trait loci at the whole‐genome level, and find single‐nucleotide polymorphisms that influence gene expression and DNA methylation; genome‐wide association analysis of disease‐related DNA copy number variations. Applying these strategies and methods will serve to strengthen GWAS data to enhance the utility and significance of GWAS in improving understanding of the genetics of complex diseases or traits and translate these findings for clinical applications.
