Genome-wide investigation highlights global and local pleiotropy linking neurodevelopmental disorders to acquired hearing problems.

Background: Neurodevelopmental disorders have been associated with hearing problems (HP) later in life, but there is limited information regarding their shared biology. Methods: We leveraged large-scale genome-wide datasets to estimate genetic correlation (global and local), polygenic overlap, and locus-specific pleiotropy among HP, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Tourette syndrome (TS). Then, we investigated shared molecular functions, biological processes, and cellular components, and performed a drug-repurposing analysis to identify compounds that may target the pathogenic processes linking neurodevelopmental disorders to HP. Results: We observed high genetic correlation of HP with ASD (rg=0.72) and TS (rg=0.69). While HP-ADHD genetic correlation was low (rg=0.07), 40% of the causal variants were shared between these conditions, with only 53% of them showing concordant effect directions. We also identified nine chromosomal regions with evidence of ADHD-HP local genetic correlations with pleiotropic effects on other outcomes such as smoking initiation, brain-imaging phenotypes, and bilirubin levels. With respect to HP-ASD, we observed an inverse local genetic correlation within Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that the comorbidity between neurodevelopmental disorders and HP is at least partially due to shared pathogenic processes acting through intrinsic and extrinsic factors.