Isoform-Resolved Genetic Architecture of Epilepsy and SUDEP Reveals Divergent Brain and Heart Channelopathy Signatures

Abstract

Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is the most devastating complication of epilepsy, yet the molecular features distinguishing individuals at risk remain poorly defined. Although epilepsy and SUDEP share substantial genetic overlap, fatal outcomes may arise when shared risk genes are differentially deployed across neuronal and cardiac systems. Here, we identify tissue- and isoform-level regulation as a key determinant of divergence between epilepsy and SUDEP risk. We performed a large-scale integrated analysis of genetic variants reported in epilepsy and SUDEP across 419 sequencing-based studies encompassing 35,659 individuals, and quantified gene-level burden using a Bayesian Poisson-Gamma rate ratio framework. This analysis revealed preferential enrichment of genes related to cardiac electrophysiology and contractile function in SUDEP, whereas epilepsy was dominated by genes involved in neuronal excitability and synaptic signaling. To determine how shared genetic loci are deployed across tissues, we integrated GTEx-based tissue expression profiles with long-read single-cell transcriptomic datasets from human heart and brain to resolve isoform-level expression patterns. These analyses revealed pronounced tissue-specific transcript architectures. Cardiac-associated genes, including HCN4, KCNH2, KCNE1, MYH6, MYO18B, and ATP1A2, showed heart-restricted isoform expression, whereas neuronal genes such as ADGRV1, CACNA1A, GRIN2B, HCN1, HCN2, KCNA1, SCN1A, SCN2A, and SCN8A. Importantly, several shared genes exhibited tissue-partitioned isoform expression, with distinct transcript repertoires in heart and brain, particularly across pathways related to ion transport, signaling, metabolism, and structural organization. Consistent patterns were observed in iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and neurons, indicating that lineage-dependent deployment of shared genes is preserved in controlled systems. Together, these findings suggest that tissue-specific isoform regulation provides a mechanistic basis linking shared epilepsy genetics to SUDEP susceptibility, whereby the same genetic loci contribute to neuronal dysfunction in epilepsy and to cardiac vulnerability in SUDEP. This positions SUDEP as a neuro-cardiac interface disorder shaped by isoform-level regulatory divergence.