Genome-wide Association study of Asthma, Total IgE, and Lung function in a Cohort of Peruvian Children

Abstract BACKGROUND Genetic ancestry plays a role in asthma health disparities. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of ancestry on, and identify genetic variants associated with asthma, serum immunoglobulin E (IgE), and lung function. METHODS 436 Peruvian children (9-19 years) with asthma and 291 without asthma were genotyped using the Illumina Multi-Ethnic Global Array. Genome-wide proportions of Indigenous ancestry from continental America (NAT) and European ancestry from Iberian Populations in Spain (IBS) were estimated using ADMIXTURE. We assessed the relationship between ancestry and the phenotypes, and performed a genome-wide association study. RESULTS Mean ancestry was 84.7% NAT (cases: 84.2%; controls: 85.4%) and 15.3% IBS (15.8%; 14.6%). Adjusting for asthma, NAT was associated with higher IgE (p CONCLUSION This study confirms the role of HLA in atopy, and identifies a novel locus mapping to a LncRNA for lung function that may be specific to children with Indigenous ancestry from continental America.