Integrating mRNA and miRNA Co-Expression Networks with eQTLs in the Nucleus Accumbens of Human Chronic Alcoholics

Alcohol consumption is known to lead to gene expression changes in the brain. After performing gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) of genome-wide mRNA and microRNA expressions in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) from subjects with alcohol dependence (AD) and matched controls six mRNA and three miRNA modules significantly correlated with AD after Bonferroni correction (adj. p 0.05) were identified. Cell-type-specific transcriptome analysis revealed two of the mRNA modules to be enriched for neuronal specific marker genes and downregulated in AD, whereas the remaining four were enriched for astrocyte and microglial specific marker genes and were upregulated in AD. Using gene set enrichment analysis, the neuronal specific modules were enriched for genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial dysfunction and MAPK signaling, while the glial-specific modules were enriched mostly for genes involved in processes related to immune functions, i.e. reactome cytokine signaling in immune system (all adj. p 0.05). In the mRNA and miRNA modules, 461 and 25 candidate hub genes were identified, respectively. In contrast to the expected miRNAs biological functions, the correlation analyses between mRNA and miRNA hub genes revealed a significantly higher number of positive than negative correlations (chi-square p 0.0001). At FDR 0.1, integration of the mRNA and miRNA hubs genes expression with genome-wide genotypic data identified 591 cis-eQTLs and 62 cis-eQTLs for the mRNA and miRNA hubs, respectively. Adjusting for the number of tests, the mRNA cis-eQTLs were significantly enriched for AD GWAS signals in the Collaborative Study on Genetics of Alcohol (COGA) sample (adj. p=0.024), providing a novel biological role for these association signals. In conclusion, our study identified coordinated mRNA and miRNA co-expression changes in the NAc of AD subjects, and our genetic (cis-eQTL) analysis provides novel insights into the etiological mechanisms of AD.

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Mamdani M, Williamson V, McMichael GO, Blevins T, Aliev F, Adkins A, Hack L, Bigdeli T, van der Vaart AD, Web BT, Bacanu SA, Kalsi G, COGA Consortium., Kendler KS, Miles MF, Dick D, Riley BP, Dumur C, Vladimirov VI