[Pubmed] Shared genetic and neuroimmune architecture links type 1 diabetes with neurocognitive traits
Posté : 14 mars 2026 11:00
Nat Commun. 2026 Mar 13. doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-70694-8. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Type 1 diabetes, particularly with childhood onset, is associated with altered neurocognitive traits, yet the underlying biological mechanisms are unclear. Here, we integrate genome-wide association results with single-cell epigenomic profiles and show that type 1 diabetes heritability is enriched in accessible chromatin of human brain-resident cells, most notably microglia, across neurodevelopment into adulthood. Bonferroni-corrected cross-trait genetic correlation analyses reveal negative correlations of type 1 diabetes with intelligence, executive function, and bipolar disorder, and a positive correlation with myasthenia gravis. Conjunctional false discovery rate analysis identifies pleiotropic loci jointly influencing type 1 diabetes and neurocognitive traits, including the 17q21.31 neurogenomic hub. Mendelian randomization further demonstrates protective effects of educational attainment, intelligence, Alzheimer's disease, and bipolar disorder on type 1 diabetes risk, whereas liability to multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis increases type 1 diabetes risk. In the reverse direction, liability to type 1 diabetes is associated with increased risk of myasthenia gravis. We identify several gene expression regulatory variants in brain and immune cells that jointly influence type 1 diabetes and neurocognitive traits, some of which show concordant differential expression in disease-affected versus control tissue. Together, these findings highlight pleiotropic genetic and neuroimmune mechanisms that link type 1 diabetes with cognition and neuropsychiatric disease risk.
PMID:41826324 | DOI:10.1038/s41467-026-70694-8
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4182632 ... t6+133c1fe