The overall goals of this proposal are to comprehensively identify the specific sequence variants involved in the development of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), to explore how these key IPF sequence variants contribute to the etiologic, biologic, and clinical phenotypes of this disease, and then examine the generalizability of these genetic risk variants to other ethnic groups. We chose to focus on IPF in the competitive renewal since IPF is the most common and severe fibrosing idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (fIIP), is a well-defined phenotype (1- 3), is more strongly associated with the MUC5B promoter variant than other forms of fIIP (Table 1) (4, 5), composed 81% of the cases in our GWAS (6), and is associated with 16 of the 24 fIIP GWAS loci (Table 1). The overall concept driving the proposed research is that while our GWAS loci can be used to define risk of disease, identification of the specific variant(s) and gene(s) within the 16 high priority PF loci is needed to make progress on understanding disease pathogenesis (7, 8), prognosis (9-25), treatment (26-29), and survival (30), all of which remain major problems in understanding and treating patients with IPF. The findings from the initial cycle of our R01 lead us to conclude that IPF is caused by rare, uncommon, and common variants in a number of risk genes that function alone and/or in concert with or without cigarette smoking to influence the risk of developing both familial and sporadic forms of IPF and that the genetics of IPF may help us identify disease earlier and understand the biological and clinical heterogeneity of this disease. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that specific gene variants and gene variant x gene variant interactions with or without cigarette smoking result in unique etiologic, biologic, and clinical phenotypes of IPF.
In Aim 1, we will sequence these targeted regions (16 loci; 6.17 Mb DNA) in 1500 cases of IPF (200 familial and 1300 sporadic) and 1500 controls; thus identifying a broad range of sequence variants potentially associated with IPF.
In Aim 2, we will validate these novel sequence variants in independent populations of patients with sporadic IPF (200 familial and 1300 sporadic) and unaffected controls (N=1500). The goal of Aim 3 is to understand how the specific genetic variants identified in Aims 1 and 2 interact with the MUC5B variant, and then explore MUC5B x gene variant, gene x gene, and gene x smoking interactions, and the relationship of genetic variants and interactions to unique biological and clinical manifestations of IPF.
In Aim 4, we plan to examine the generalizability of the genetic risk variants to other ethnic groups.

Public Health Relevance

The overall goals of this proposal are to comprehensively identify the specific sequence variants involved in the development of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and to explore how these key IPF sequence variants contribute to the etiologic, biologic, and clinical phenotypes of this disease. Once established, this new knowledge should enhance early detection, predict outcome, develop biomarkers, and design personalized therapeutic strategies for patients with IPF.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL097163-08
Application #
9294099
Study Section
Infectious Diseases, Reproductive Health, Asthma and Pulmonary Conditions Study Section (IRAP)
Program Officer
Gan, Weiniu
Project Start
2009-09-03
Project End
2019-06-30
Budget Start
2017-07-01
Budget End
2018-06-30
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Colorado Denver
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
041096314
City
Aurora
State
CO
Country
United States
Zip Code
80045
Juge, Pierre-Antoine; Lee, Joyce S; Ebstein, Esther et al. (2018) MUC5B Promoter Variant and Rheumatoid Arthritis with Interstitial Lung Disease. N Engl J Med 379:2209-2219
Wolters, Paul J; Blackwell, Timothy S; Eickelberg, Oliver et al. (2018) Time for a change: is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis still idiopathic and only fibrotic? Lancet Respir Med 6:154-160
Monte, Andrew A; Sun, Hao; Rapp-Olsson, Anna Malin et al. (2018) The Plasma Concentration of MUC5B Is Associated with Clinical Outcomes in Paraquat-poisoned Patients. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 197:663-665
Kropski, Jonathan A; Reiss, Sara; Markin, Cheryl et al. (2017) Rare Genetic Variants in PARN Are Associated with Pulmonary Fibrosis in Families. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 196:1481-1484
Kropski, Jonathan A; Young, Lisa R; Cogan, Joy D et al. (2017) Genetic Evaluation and Testing of Patients and Families with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 195:1423-1428
Netea, Mihai G; Balkwill, Frances; Chonchol, Michel et al. (2017) A guiding map for inflammation. Nat Immunol 18:826-831
Manichaikul, Ani; Sun, Li; Borczuk, Alain C et al. (2017) Plasma Soluble Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Ann Am Thorac Soc 14:628-635
Molyneaux, Philip L; Cox, Michael J; Wells, Athol U et al. (2017) Changes in the respiratory microbiome during acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Respir Res 18:29
Molyneaux, Philip L; Willis-Owen, Saffron A G; Cox, Michael J et al. (2017) Host-Microbial Interactions in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 195:1640-1650
Allen, Richard J; Porte, Joanne; Braybrooke, Rebecca et al. (2017) Genetic variants associated with susceptibility to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in people of European ancestry: a genome-wide association study. Lancet Respir Med 5:869-880

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