 |
| Andrea Burri The University of Zurich and Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, NZ
Are Epigenetic Factors Implicated In Chronic Widespread Pain?
Andrea Burri PhD1,2
1Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland
2Auckland University of Technology, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, School of Clinical Sciences
Objectives: To explore genome-wide disease-differentially methylated positions (DMPs) for chronic widespread pain (CWP) in a sample of unrelated individuals and a subsample of discordant monozygotic (MZ) twins.
Methods: A total of N = 281 twin individuals from the TwinsUK registry, including N=33 MZ twins discordant for self-reported CWP, were part of the discovery sample. The replication sample included 729 men and 756 women from a subsample of the KORA S4 survey. Epigenome-wide analysis of DNA methylation was conducted using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation 450 DNA BeadChip in both the discovery and replication sample.
Results: The highest statistical significance was found for cg11251499, annotated to the 1st exon/5-UTR of RE1-silencing transcription factor (REST), and for collagen, type I, alpha 2 (COL1A2) – both of which have been previously reported tob e biological candidates for pain. Although both DMPs were among the top 100 in the replication sample, the p-values did not reach statistical significance.
Conclusions: This is the first ever published methylation study on CWP, using a subsample of discordant twins. Associations between suggested biological candidates MAOB, REST and COL1A2 and CWP could be observed, although not reaching statistical significance. More in depth sequencing to explore further the involvement of MAOB and COL1A2 in CWP, as well as their nociceptive mechanisms is needed.
|