Koichi Matsuda, Chikashi Terao, Atsushi Takahashi, Sarah A. Howles, Rajesh V. Thakker, Michael Ng, Asha L. Bayliss, Akira Wiberg, Michelle Goldsworthy, Dominic Furniss, Benjamin W. Turney, Emily Grout, Michiaki Kubo, Anna K Gluck, Yoichiro Kamatani, and Chizu Tanikawa
Kidney stone disease (nephrolithiasis) is a major clinical and economic health burden with a heritability of ~45โ60%. We present genome-wide association studies in British and Japanese populations and a trans-ethnic meta-analysis that include 12,123 cases and 417,378 controls, and identify 20 nephrolithiasis-associated loci, seven of which are previously unreported. A CYP24A1 locus is predicted to affect vitamin D metabolism and five loci, DGKD, DGKH, WDR72, GPIC1, and BCR, are predicted to influence calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) signaling. In a validation cohort of only nephrolithiasis patients, the CYP24A1-associated locus correlates with serum calcium concentration and a number of nephrolithiasis episodes while the DGKD-associated locus correlates with urinary calcium excretion. In vitro, DGKD knockdown impairs CaSR-signal transduction, an effect rectified with the calcimimetic cinacalcet. Our findings indicate that studies of genotype-guided precision-medicine approaches, including withholding vitamin D supplementation and targeting vitamin D activation or CaSR-signaling pathways in patients with recurrent kidney stones, are warranted., Kidney stones form in the presence of overabundance of crystal-forming substances such as Ca2+ and oxalate. Here, the authors report genome-wide association analyses for kidney stone disease, report seven previously unknown loci and find that some of these loci also associate with Ca2+ concentration and excretion.