Association and cis -mQTL analysis of variants in CHRNA3-A5, CHRNA7, CHRNB2 , and CHRNB4 in relation to nicotine dependence in a Chinese Han population

Nicotine dependence (ND) is a worldwide health problem. Numerous genetic studies have demonstrated a significant association of variants in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) with smoking behaviors. However, most of these studies enrolled only subjects of European or African ancestry. In addition, although an increasing body of evidence implies a causal connection of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and epigenetic regulation of gene expression, few studies of this issue have been reported. In this study, we performed both association and interaction analysis for 67 SNPs in CHRNA3-A5, CHRNA7, CHRNB2 , and CHRNB4 with ND in a Chinese Han population ( N = 5055). We further analyzed cis -mQTL for the three most significant SNPs and 5580 potential methylation loci within these target gene regions. Our results indicated that the SNPs rs1948 and rs7178270 in CHRNB4 and rs3743075 in CHRNA3 were significantly associated with the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) score ( p = 6.6 × 10 −5 ; p = 2.0 × 10 −4 , and p = 7.0 × 10 −4 , respectively). Haplotype-based association analysis revealed that two major haplotypes, T-G and C-A, formed by rs3743075–rs3743074 in CHRNA3 , and other two major haplotypes, A-G-C and G-C-C, formed by rs1948–rs7178270–rs17487223 in CHRNB4 , were significantly associated with the FTND score ( p ≤ 8.0 × 10 −4 ). Further, we found evidence for the presence of significant interaction among variants within CHRNA3/B4/A5, CHRNA4/B2/A5 , and CHRNA7 in affecting ND, with corresponding p values of 5.8 × 10 −6 , 8.0 × 10 −5 , and 0.012, respectively. Finally, we identified two CpG sites (CpG_2975 and CpG_3007) in CHRNA3 that are significantly associated with three cis -mQTL SNPs (rs1948, rs7178270, rs3743075) in the CHRNA5/A3/B4 cluster ( p ≤ 1.9 × 10 −6 ), which formed four significant CpG–SNP pairs in our sample. Together, we revealed at least three novel SNPs in CHRNA3 and CHRNB4 to be significantly associated with the FTND score. Further, we showed that these significant variants contribute to ND via two methylated sites, and we demonstrated significant interaction affecting ND among variants in CHRNA5/A3/B4 , CHRNA7 , and CHRNA4/B2/A5 . In sum, these findings provide robust evidence that SNPs in nAChR genes convey a risk of ND in the Chinese Han population.