Variants at IRF5-TNPO3, 17q12-21 and MMEL1 are associated with primary biliary cirrhosis

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Abstract
Katherine Siminovitch and colleagues report replication and fine-mapping studies for primary biliary cirrhosis. They identify three loci newly associated with susceptibility to this autoimmune liver disease. We genotyped individuals with primary biliary cirrhosis and unaffected controls for suggestive risk loci (genome-wide association P < 1 × 10−4) identified in a previous genome-wide association study. Combined analysis of the genome-wide association and replication datasets identified IRF5-TNPO3 (combined P = 8.66 × 10−13), 17q12-21 (combined P = 3.50 × 10−13) and MMEL1 (combined P = 3.15 × 10−8) as new primary biliary cirrhosis susceptibility loci. Fine-mapping studies showed that a single variant accounts for the IRF5-TNPO3 association. As these loci are implicated in other autoimmune conditions, these findings confirm genetic overlap among such diseases.