Genome-wide association study identifies novel loci for type 2 diabetes-attributed end-stage kidney disease in African Americans

End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is a significant public health concern disproportionately affecting African Americans (AAs). Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is the leading cause of ESKD in the USA, and efforts to uncover genetic susceptibility to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) have had limited success. A prior genome-wide association study (GWAS) in AAs with T2D-ESKD was expanded with additional AA cases and controls and genotypes imputed to the higher density 1000 Genomes reference panel. The discovery analysis included 3432 T2D-ESKD cases and 6977 non-diabetic non-nephropathy controls ( N = 10,409), followed by a discrimination analysis in 2756 T2D non-nephropathy controls to exclude T2D-associated variants. Six independent variants located in or near RND3/RBM43 , SLITRK3 , ENPP7 , GNG7 , and APOL1 achieved genome-wide significant association ( P < 5 × 10 −8 ) with T2D-ESKD. Following extension analyses in 1910 non-diabetic ESKD cases and 908 non-diabetic non-nephropathy controls, a meta-analysis of 5342 AA all-cause ESKD cases and 6977 AA non-diabetic non-nephropathy controls revealed an additional novel all-cause ESKD locus at EFNB2 (rs77113398; P = 9.84 × 10 –9 ; OR = 1.94). Exclusion of APOL1 renal-risk genotype carriers identified two additional genome-wide significant T2D-ESKD-associated loci at GRAMD3 and MGAT4C . A second variant at GNG7 (rs373971520; P = 2.17 × 10 –8 , OR = 1.46) remained associated with all-cause ESKD in the APOL1 -negative analysis. Findings provide further evidence for genetic factors associated with advanced kidney disease in AAs with T2D.