Background/Purpose:  Gout is a common and excruciatingly painful inflammatory arthritis caused by hyperuricemia.  In addition to various lifestyle risk factors, a substantial genetic predisposition to gout has long been recognized.  The Global Urate Genetics Consortium (GUGC) has aimed to comprehensively investigate the genetics of serum uric acid and gout using data from > 140,000 individuals of European-ancestry, 8,340 individuals of Indian ancestry, 5,820 African-Americans, and 15,286 Japanese.

Methods:   We performed discovery GWAS meta-analyses of serum urate levels (n=110,347 individuals) followed by replication analyses (n=32,813 different individuals).  Our gout analysis involved 3,151 cases and 68,350 controls, including 1,036 incident gout cases that met the American College of Rheumatology Criteria.  We also examined the association of gout with fractional excretion of uric acid (n=6,799).  A weighted genetic urate score was constructed based on the number of risk alleles across urate-associated loci, and their association with the risk of gout was evaluated.  Furthermore, we examined implicated transcript expression in cis (expression quantitative trait loci databases) for potential insights into the gene underlying the association signal.  Finally, in order to further identify urate-associated genomic regions, we performed functional network analyses that incorporated prior knowledge on molecular interactions in which the gene products of implicated genes operate.

Results: We identified and replicated 28 genome-wide significant loci in association with serum urate (P ≤ 5×10^-8), including all previously-reported loci as well as 18 novel genetic loci.  Unlike the majority of previously-identified loci, none of the novel loci appeared to be obvious candidates for urate transport.  Rather, they were mapped to genes that encode for purine production, transcription, or growth factors with broad downstream responses.  Besides SLC2A9 and ABCG2, no additional regions contained SNPs that differed significantly (P < 5x10^-8) between sexes.  Urate-increasing alleles were associated with an increased risk of gout for all loci.  The urate genetic risk score (ranging from 10 to 45) was significantly associated with an increased odds of prevalent gout (OR per unit increase, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.09-1.14) and incident gout (OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.08-1.13).  Associations for many of the loci were of similar magnitude in individuals of non-European ancestry.  Detailed characterization of the loci revealed associations with transcript expression and the fractional excretion of urate.  Network analyses implicated the inhibins-activins signaling pathways and glucose metabolism in systemic urate control.

Conclusion:   The novel genetic candidates identified in this urate/gout consortium study, the largest to date, highlight the importance of metabolic control of urate production and urate excretion.  The modulation by signaling processes that influence metabolic pathways such as glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway appear to be central mechanisms underpinned by the novel GWAS candidates.  These findings may have implications for further research into urate-lowering drugs to treat and prevent gout.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/genetic-variants-of-serum-uric-acid-and-gout-an-analysis-of-170000-individuals/