Study: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Early- and late-diagnosed autism are genetically distinct Analyses of symptoms and genomic data indicate that autism that manifests in early childhood is distinct from autism that is diagnosed later in development.

Age at diagnosis is gaining attention in autism research.

AaD is heritable, with genetic factors influencing whether someone is diagnosed earlier or later. The genetic correlation is only moderate, suggesting differing genetic profiles.

Commentary: doi.org/10.1038/d415...

#autism #genetics

International Society for Autism Research, INSAR (@AutismINSAR) / X International Society for Autism Research, INSAR (@AutismINSAR) / X

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be posting about autism!

From April 22–25, we’ll share live updates from the INSAR annual meeting, the largest global conference on autism research, featuring the latest in autism genetics.

Follow x.com/autisminsar
#autism #genetics #INSAR

👀 Watch this space for a deeper dive on the soon-to-be-published paper!

Congrats to all authors, incl. @megsk.bsky.social, @thaliaeley.bsky.social, @jonicoleman.bsky.social, @psychgenomics.bsky.social, & many more

🧠 Gene-based analyses highlighted genes expressed in the brain and involved in neural communication, with pathway enrichment in synaptic processes

🔗 Genetic correlations were found with 64/105 traits, incl. highest with depression & anxiety disorders (rg = 0.71-0.85), OCD (0.58), IBS (0.57), migraine (0.27) & endometriosis (0.27)

🧬 SNP-based heritability of anxiety symptoms was ~6%. Polygenic scores were significantly associated with anxiety across European, African, & South Asian genetic ancestry samples

🔍 Rather than comparing cases vs controls, we measured anxiety symptom severity on a continuum, capturing genetic variation across the spectrum of anxiety

🧵 New preprint from the PGC Anxiety Working Group: the largest GWAS of generalised anxiety symptoms to date, analysing 700k across 14 cohorts. 📄 Skelton et al found 74 genome-wide significant loci, 39 novel for anxiety doi.org/10.1101/2025...

👏Congrats to all authors (2/2) @profarmour.bsky.social, @mcintosh2001.bsky.social, @genomics4psychosis.bsky.social, @dsmith2025.bsky.social, @ian-hickie.bsky.social & more!

👏Congrats to all authors (1/2) @megsk.bsky.social @thaliaeley.bsky.social @jonicoleman.bsky.social @psychgenomics.bsky.social @rujiawang.bsky.social @abiterkuile.bsky.social @al-murphy.bsky.social @matthewhotopf.bsky.social

🧬 Among implicated genes: TNNI3K, linked to heart rhythm regulation, & ECE1, involved in blood pressure and vasoconstriction. Genetics of panic point to the cardiovascular system🫀

🌍 Polygenic scores for panic attacks explained 6% of variance in European, 4.6% in South Asian, & 1.6% in African genetic ancestry samples. Relatively strong transferability to South Asian genetic ancestry compared to other anxiety phenotypes

💊 Drug analysis identified five drug classes associated with panic attacks, incl. antidepressants, muscle relaxants & antipsychotics, most of which have been used or suggested for panic treatment.

🔗 Panic was genetically correlated with anxiety disorders (rg = 0.90-0.94), depression (0.78-0.84), PTSD (0.63-0.67), & heart disease (0.20-0.21), reinforcing a genetic link between panic and cardiovascular health.

🔬 Peripheral neuron associations weren't unique to panic. Bipolar disorder, depression, & dimensional anxiety also showed significant enrichment in some of these cell types, pointing to shared pathways across psychiatric conditions

🧠🔄🫀 Supports panic as a brain-body disorder, where dysregulated sensory signals from internal organs may contribute to the heightened body awareness & misinterpretation of physical sensations that characterise panic.

🫀🫁👁️ Single-cell analysis implicated neurons from the heart, lungs, and eyes in panic attacks. These organs are commonly affected during panic attacks: racing heart, breathlessness, & visual disturbance.

🧵 Mitchell et al. report the first genome-wide significant loci for panic attacks (16 loci; 61,746 cases) & panic disorder (7 loci; 29,775 cases), combining data from 5 international cohorts. 📄Preprint on medRxiv doi.org/10.1101/2025...

👏 Congrats to all authors!

📊 Female anxiety showed a stronger genetic correlation with ADHD (surviving FDR correction) & BMI. Male anxiety was more strongly correlated with waist-hip-ratio adjusted BMI, suggesting different adiposity pathways may underlie sex-specific genetic overlap between anxiety and body weight

🧠 Gene-based analyses revealed potential different biological processes: genes prioritised in females were enriched in chromatin regulation and olfactory transduction, while genes in males were enriched in lipoprotein metabolism

🔗 Genetic correlation between females & males was high (rg = 0.90) but significantly different from 1, indicating a largely shared but not identical genetics. SNP-based heritability was significantly higher in females, though this depends on assumptions about how common anxiety is in each sex

🔍 26 genome-wide significant lead SNPs were identified in females, & six in males. Of the 32 sex-specific lead SNPs, 12 showed significantly different effect sizes between the sexes

🧬 Are the genetics of anxiety different in females and males? In a new preprint, Hu et al. report the first sex-specific GWAS meta-analysis of anxiety disorders, combining UK Biobank and All of Us: 85,000 female cases & 36,720 male cases 📄 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

👏 Congrats to all authors, including @dflevey.bsky.social, @gitapathak-gapslab.bsky.social, @yairazoe.bsky.social & more

💡These findings highlight both the promise & challenges of large-scale epigenetic studies of anxiety, particularly the need for larger samples, replication across ancestries, & careful control of environmental confounders

🔬14 of the 33 European ancestry CpG sites showed correlated methylation patterns between blood & brain, suggesting blood-based findings may be informative for understanding GAD-related changes in the brain

🌍 In African & Latin American ancestry analyses, significant sites were less attenuated by smoking adjustment. Gene set enrichment revealed estrogen signalling pathway enrichment in European ancestry and FOXP-related changes in African ancestry