The ERCC6 Gene and Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible visual loss in the developed countries and is caused by both environmental and genetic factors. A recent study (Tuo et al., PNAS) reported an association between AMD and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs3793784) in the ERCC6 (NM_000124) gene. The risk allele also increased ERCC6 expression. ERCC6 is involved in DNA repair and mutations in ERCC6 cause Cockayne syndrome (CS). Amongst others, photosensitivity and pigmentary retinopathy are hallmarks of CS. Methodology/Principal Findings: Separate and combined data from three large AMD case-control studies and a prospective population-based study (The Rotterdam Study) were used to analyse the genetic association between ERCC6 and AMD (2682 AMD cases and 3152 controls). We also measured ERCC6 mRNA levels in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells of healthy and early AMD affected human donor eyes. Rs3793784 conferred a small increase in risk for late AMD in the Dutch population (The Rotterdam and AMRO-NL study), but this was not replicated in two non-European studies (AREDS, Columbia University). In addition, the AMRO-NL study revealed no significant association for 9 other variants spanning ERCC6. Finally, we determined that ERCC6 expression in the human RPE did not depend on rs3793784 genotype, but, interestingly, on AMD status: Early AMD-affected donor eyes had a 50% lower ERCC6 expression than healthy donor eyes (P = 0.018). Conclusions/Significance: Our meta analysis of four Caucasian cohorts does not replicate the reported association between SNPs in ERCC6 and AMD. Nevertheless, our findings on ERCC6 expression in the RPE suggest that ERCC6 may be functionally involved in AMD. Combining our data with those of the literature, we hypothesize that the AMD-related reduced transcriptional activity of ERCC6 may be caused by diverse, small and heterogeneous genetic and/or environmental determinants

Multilocus analysis of age-related macular degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a late onset vision disorder. Recent studies demonstrate that alterations in complement cascade genes are associated with AMD. Of the three identified complement loci, variants in complement factor H (CFH) have the highest impact as does an independent locus at 10q26. Our matched case–control study using the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) cohort confirms and extends the associations in these loci. Subjects were genotyped for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from CFH, complement component 2 (C2), complement component 3 (C3), complement factor B (CFB), age-related maculopathy susceptibility (ARMS2), HtrA serine peptidase 1 (HTRA1), and apolipoprotein E (APOE). Individual SNPs, and haplotypes showed risk trends consistent with those seen in other population studies for CFH, C3, C2, and CFB. SNP rs10490924 on chromosome 10 in exon 1 of the ARMS2 gene showed a highly significant association with an odds ratio (OR) of 3.2 (95% CI 2.4–4.2) for the risk allele and rs11200638 located in the proximal promoter region of HTRA1 showed a higher significant association with an OR of 3.4 (95% CI 2.5–4.6) with our AMD cases. We found that APOE haplotypes were not significantly associated with disease status. Adjustments for other risk factors did not significantly alter the observed associations. This study validates the complement pathway's involvement in AMD and suggests that allelic variants in complement genes have a direct role in disease. These results also support previous findings that variants in the region of 10q26 exert an independent risk for AMD