Back

Chromatin dynamics identifies 78 genes at loci associated with elevated intraocular pressure and primary open-angle glaucoma

Singh, N.; Batz, Z.; Advani, J.; English, M. A.; Maddala, R.; Rao, V.; Swaroop, A.

2026-03-16 genomics
10.64898/2026.03.12.711121 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder, and elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) represents the major, and only modifiable, risk factor for the disease. We modeled increased IOP by treating three primary human trabecular meshwork (TM) cell strains with dexamethasone, then generated a high-resolution map of promoter-centered chromatin contacts and regulatory modules to decipher how the genomic architecture and epigenetic state of disease-associated loci contribute to pathogenesis. We identify dynamic changes in chromatin compartments and looping, cis-regulatory elements and transcription factor hubs corresponding to altered transcriptional profile. By integrating GWAS-associated variants with dexamethasone-induced 3D chromatin landscape, we discovered 26 IOP- and 52 POAG- candidate causal genes, which belong to vesicle transport, TLR, MAPK and hippo-YAP signaling pathways. We also uncovered transcriptional regulatory role of 103 non-coding lead variants. Our studies provide a mechanistic framework of genetic complexity associated with ocular hypertension and POAG pathogenesis in addition to targets for therapies.

Matching journals

The top 6 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.