A Flexible Bayesian Model for Studying Gene–Environment Interaction

An important follow-up step after genetic markers are found to be associated with a disease outcome is a more detailed analysis investigating how the implicated gene or chromosomal region and an established environment risk factor interact to influence the disease risk. The standard approach to this study of gene–environment interaction considers one genetic marker at a time and therefore could misrepresent and underestimate the genetic contribution to the joint effect when one or more functional loci, some of which might not be genotyped, exist in the region and interact with the environment risk factor in a complex way. We develop a more global approach based on a Bayesian model that uses a latent genetic profile variable to capture all of the genetic variation in the entire targeted region and allows the environment effect to vary across different genetic profile categories. We also propose a resampling-based test derived from the developed Bayesian model for the detection of gene–environment interaction. Using data collected in the Environment and Genetics in Lung Cancer Etiology (EAGLE) study, we apply the Bayesian model to evaluate the joint effect of smoking intensity and genetic variants in the 15q25.1 region, which contains a cluster of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor genes and has been shown to be associated with both lung cancer and smoking behavior. We find evidence for gene–environment interaction (P-value = 0.016), with the smoking effect appearing to be stronger in subjects with a genetic profile associated with a higher lung cancer risk; the conventional test of gene–environment interaction based on the single-marker approach is far from significant. Author Summary: Many common diseases result from a complex interplay of genetic and environmental risk factors. It is important to study the potential genetic and environmental risk factors jointly in order to achieve a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying disease development. The standard single-marker approach that studies the environmental risk factor and one genetic marker at a time could misrepresent the gene–environment interaction, as the single genetic marker might not be an appropriate surrogate for the underlying genetic functioning polymorphisms. We propose a method to look at gene–environment interaction at the gene/region level by integrating information observed on multiple genetic markers within the selected gene/region with measures of environmental exposure. Using data collected in the Environment and Genetics in Lung Cancer Etiology (EAGLE) study, we apply the proposed model to evaluate the joint effect of smoking intensity and genetic variants in the 15q25.1 region and find evidence for gene–environment interaction (P-value = 0.016), with the smoking effect varying according to a subject's genetic profile.