Genome-wide Association Study for AKI

Two genetic variants in the DISP1-TLR5 gene locus were associated with risk of AKI.

DISP1 and TLR5 were differentially regulated in kidney biopsy tissue from patients with AKI compared with no AKI.

Although common genetic risks for CKD are well established, genetic factors influencing risk for AKI in hospitalized patients are poorly understood.

We conducted a genome-wide association study in 1369 participants in the Assessment, Serial Evaluation, and Subsequent Sequelae of AKI Study; a multiethnic population of hospitalized participants with and without AKI matched on demographics, comorbidities, and kidney function before hospitalization. We then completed functional annotation of top-performing variants for AKI using single-cell RNA sequencing data from kidney biopsies in 12 patients with AKI and 18 healthy living donors from the Kidney Precision Medicine Project.

No genome-wide significant associations with AKI risk were found in Assessment, Serial Evaluation, and Subsequent Sequelae of AKI (P < 5×10⁻⁸). The top two variants with the strongest association with AKI mapped to the dispatched resistance-nodulation-division (RND) transporter family member 1 (DISP1) gene and toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) gene locus, rs17538288 (odds ratio, 1.55; 95% confidence interval, 1.32 to 182; P = 9.47×10⁻⁸) and rs7546189 (odds ratio, 1.53; 95% confidence interval, 1.30 to 1.81; P = 4.60×10⁻⁷). In comparison with kidney tissue from healthy living donors, kidney biopsies in patients with AKI showed differential DISP1 expression in proximal tubular epithelial cells (adjusted P = 3.9×10⁻²) and thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle (adjusted P = 8.7×10⁻³) and differential TLR5 gene expression in thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle (adjusted P = 4.9×10⁻³⁰).

AKI is a heterogeneous clinical syndrome with various underlying risk factors, etiologies, and pathophysiology that may limit the identification of genetic variants. Although no variants reached genome-wide significance, we report two variants in the intergenic region between DISP1 and TLR5, suggesting this region as a novel risk for AKI susceptibility.