@article {7594, title = {Association Between Telomere Length and Risk of Cancer and Non-Neoplastic Diseases: A Mendelian Randomization Study.}, journal = {JAMA Oncol}, volume = {3}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May 01}, pages = {636-651}, abstract = {

Importance: The causal direction and magnitude of the association between telomere length and incidence of cancer and non-neoplastic diseases is uncertain owing to the susceptibility of observational studies to confounding and reverse causation.

Objective: To conduct a Mendelian randomization study, using germline genetic variants as instrumental variables, to appraise the causal relevance of telomere length for risk of cancer and non-neoplastic diseases.

Data Sources: Genomewide association studies (GWAS) published up to January 15, 2015.

Study Selection: GWAS of noncommunicable diseases that assayed germline genetic variation and did not select cohort or control participants on the basis of preexisting diseases. Of 163 GWAS of noncommunicable diseases identified, summary data from 103 were available.

Data Extraction and Synthesis: Summary association statistics for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are strongly associated with telomere length in the general population.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Odds ratios (ORs) and 95\% confidence intervals (CIs) for disease per standard deviation (SD) higher telomere length due to germline genetic variation.

Results: Summary data were available for 35 cancers and 48 non-neoplastic diseases, corresponding to 420 081 cases (median cases, 2526 per disease) and 1 093 105 controls (median, 6789 per disease). Increased telomere length due to germline genetic variation was generally associated with increased risk for site-specific cancers. The strongest associations (ORs [95\% CIs] per 1-SD change in genetically increased telomere length) were observed for glioma, 5.27 (3.15-8.81); serous low-malignant-potential ovarian cancer, 4.35 (2.39-7.94); lung adenocarcinoma, 3.19 (2.40-4.22); neuroblastoma, 2.98 (1.92-4.62); bladder cancer, 2.19 (1.32-3.66); melanoma, 1.87 (1.55-2.26); testicular cancer, 1.76 (1.02-3.04); kidney cancer, 1.55 (1.08-2.23); and endometrial cancer, 1.31 (1.07-1.61). Associations were stronger for rarer cancers and at tissue sites with lower rates of stem cell division. There was generally little evidence of association between genetically increased telomere length and risk of psychiatric, autoimmune, inflammatory, diabetic, and other non-neoplastic diseases, except for coronary heart disease (OR, 0.78 [95\% CI, 0.67-0.90]), abdominal aortic aneurysm (OR, 0.63 [95\% CI, 0.49-0.81]), celiac disease (OR, 0.42 [95\% CI, 0.28-0.61]) and interstitial lung disease (OR, 0.09 [95\% CI, 0.05-0.15]).

Conclusions and Relevance: It is likely that longer telomeres increase risk for several cancers but reduce risk for some non-neoplastic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Germ-Line Mutation, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Telomere, Telomere Homeostasis}, issn = {2374-2445}, doi = {10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.5945}, author = {Haycock, Philip C and Burgess, Stephen and Nounu, Aayah and Zheng, Jie and Okoli, George N and Bowden, Jack and Wade, Kaitlin Hazel and Timpson, Nicholas J and Evans, David M and Willeit, Peter and Aviv, Abraham and Gaunt, Tom R and Hemani, Gibran and Mangino, Massimo and Ellis, Hayley Patricia and Kurian, Kathreena M and Pooley, Karen A and Eeles, Rosalind A and Lee, Jeffrey E and Fang, Shenying and Chen, Wei V and Law, Matthew H and Bowdler, Lisa M and Iles, Mark M and Yang, Qiong and Worrall, Bradford B and Markus, Hugh Stephen and Hung, Rayjean J and Amos, Chris I and Spurdle, Amanda B and Thompson, Deborah J and O{\textquoteright}Mara, Tracy A and Wolpin, Brian and Amundadottir, Laufey and Stolzenberg-Solomon, Rachael and Trichopoulou, Antonia and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Lund, Eiliv and Duell, Eric J and Canzian, Federico and Severi, Gianluca and Overvad, Kim and Gunter, Marc J and Tumino, Rosario and Svenson, Ulrika and van Rij, Andre and Baas, Annette F and Bown, Matthew J and Samani, Nilesh J and van t{\textquoteright}Hof, Femke N G and Tromp, Gerard and Jones, Gregory T and Kuivaniemi, Helena and Elmore, James R and Johansson, Mattias and Mckay, James and Scelo, Ghislaine and Carreras-Torres, Robert and Gaborieau, Valerie and Brennan, Paul and Bracci, Paige M and Neale, Rachel E and Olson, Sara H and Gallinger, Steven and Li, Donghui and Petersen, Gloria M and Risch, Harvey A and Klein, Alison P and Han, Jiali and Abnet, Christian C and Freedman, Neal D and Taylor, Philip R and Maris, John M and Aben, Katja K and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Vermeulen, Sita H and Wiencke, John K and Walsh, Kyle M and Wrensch, Margaret and Rice, Terri and Turnbull, Clare and Litchfield, Kevin and Paternoster, Lavinia and Standl, Marie and Abecasis, Goncalo R and SanGiovanni, John Paul and Li, Yong and Mijatovic, Vladan and Sapkota, Yadav and Low, Siew-Kee and Zondervan, Krina T and Montgomery, Grant W and Nyholt, Dale R and van Heel, David A and Hunt, Karen and Arking, Dan E and Ashar, Foram N and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Comeau, Mary E and Brown, W Mark and Silverman, Edwin K and Hokanson, John E and Cho, Michael H and Hui, Jennie and Ferreira, Manuel A and Thompson, Philip J and Morrison, Alanna C and Felix, Janine F and Smith, Nicholas L and Christiano, Angela M and Petukhova, Lynn and Betz, Regina C and Fan, Xing and Zhang, Xuejun and Zhu, Caihong and Langefeld, Carl D and Thompson, Susan D and Wang, Feijie and Lin, Xu and Schwartz, David A and Fingerlin, Tasha and Rotter, Jerome I and Cotch, Mary Frances and Jensen, Richard A and Munz, Matthias and Dommisch, Henrik and Schaefer, Arne S and Han, Fang and Ollila, Hanna M and Hillary, Ryan P and Albagha, Omar and Ralston, Stuart H and Zeng, Chenjie and Zheng, Wei and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Reis, Andre and Uebe, Steffen and H{\"u}ffmeier, Ulrike and Kawamura, Yoshiya and Otowa, Takeshi and Sasaki, Tsukasa and Hibberd, Martin Lloyd and Davila, Sonia and Xie, Gang and Siminovitch, Katherine and Bei, Jin-Xin and Zeng, Yi-Xin and F{\"o}rsti, Asta and Chen, Bowang and Landi, Stefano and Franke, Andre and Fischer, Annegret and Ellinghaus, David and Flores, Carlos and Noth, Imre and Ma, Shwu-Fan and Foo, Jia Nee and Liu, Jianjun and Kim, Jong-Won and Cox, David G and Delattre, Olivier and Mirabeau, Olivier and Skibola, Christine F and Tang, Clara S and Garcia-Barcelo, Merce and Chang, Kai-Ping and Su, Wen-Hui and Chang, Yu-Sun and Martin, Nicholas G and Gordon, Scott and Wade, Tracey D and Lee, Chaeyoung and Kubo, Michiaki and Cha, Pei-Chieng and Nakamura, Yusuke and Levy, Daniel and Kimura, Masayuki and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Hunt, Steven and Spector, Tim and Soranzo, Nicole and Manichaikul, Ani W and Barr, R Graham and Kahali, Bratati and Speliotes, Elizabeth and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Jonas, Jost B and Wong, Tien Yin and Fogh, Isabella and Lin, Kuang and Powell, John F and Rice, Kenneth and Relton, Caroline L and Martin, Richard M and Davey Smith, George} } @article {7667, title = {Genome-wide association study in 79,366 European-ancestry individuals informs the genetic architecture of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jan 17}, pages = {260}, abstract = {

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone precursor that is associated with a range of human traits and diseases. Previous GWAS of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations have identified four genome-wide significant loci (GC, NADSYN1/DHCR7, CYP2R1, CYP24A1). In this study, we expand the previous SUNLIGHT Consortium GWAS discovery sample size from 16,125 to 79,366 (all European descent). This larger GWAS yields two additional loci harboring genome-wide significant variants (P = 4.7{\texttimes}10 at rs8018720 in SEC23A, and P = 1.9{\texttimes}10 at rs10745742 in AMDHD1). The overall estimate of heritability of 25-hydroxyvitamin D serum concentrations attributable to GWAS common SNPs is 7.5\%, with statistically significant loci explaining 38\% of this total. Further investigation identifies signal enrichment in immune and hematopoietic tissues, and clustering with autoimmune diseases in cell-type-specific analysis. Larger studies are required to identify additional common SNPs, and to explore the role of rare or structural variants and gene-gene interactions in the heritability of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-017-02662-2}, author = {Jiang, Xia and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Aschard, Hugues and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Richards, J Brent and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Ingelsson, Erik and Karasik, David and Pilz, Stefan and Berry, Diane and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Zheng, Jusheng and Luan, Jianan and Sofianopoulou, Eleni and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Albanes, Demetrius and Lutsey, Pamela L and Yao, Lu and Tang, Weihong and Econs, Michael J and Wallaschofski, Henri and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Zhou, Ang and Power, Chris and McCarthy, Mark I and Michos, Erin D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Weinstein, Stephanie J and Freedman, Neal D and Huang, Wen-Yi and van Schoor, Natasja M and van der Velde, Nathalie and Groot, Lisette C P G M de and Enneman, Anke and Cupples, L Adrienne and Booth, Sarah L and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Liu, Ching-Ti and Zhou, Yanhua and Ripatti, Samuli and Ohlsson, Claes and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Lorentzon, Mattias and Eriksson, Johan G and Shea, M Kyla and Houston, Denise K and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Liu, Yongmei and Lohman, Kurt K and Ferrucci, Luigi and Peacock, Munro and Gieger, Christian and Beekman, Marian and Slagboom, Eline and Deelen, Joris and Heemst, Diana van and Kleber, Marcus E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and de Boer, Ian H and Wood, Alexis C and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and den Heijer, Martin and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Cavadino, Alana and Joshi, Peter K and Wilson, James F and Hayward, Caroline and Lind, Lars and Micha{\"e}lsson, Karl and Trompet, Stella and Zillikens, M Carola and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Broer, Linda and Zgaga, Lina and Campbell, Harry and Theodoratou, Evropi and Farrington, Susan M and Timofeeva, Maria and Dunlop, Malcolm G and Valdes, Ana M and Tikkanen, Emmi and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Raitakari, Olli T and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Ikram, M Arfan and Sattar, Naveed and Jukema, J Wouter and Wareham, Nicholas J and Langenberg, Claudia and Forouhi, Nita G and Gundersen, Thomas E and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Butterworth, Adam S and Danesh, John and Spector, Timothy and Wang, Thomas J and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Kraft, Peter and Kiel, Douglas P} } @article {8402, title = {Lung function decline in former smokers and low-intensity current smokers: a secondary data analysis of the NHLBI Pooled Cohorts Study.}, journal = {Lancet Respir Med}, volume = {8}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 01}, pages = {34-44}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Former smokers now outnumber current smokers in many developed countries, and current smokers are smoking fewer cigarettes per day. Some data suggest that lung function decline normalises with smoking cessation; however, mechanistic studies suggest that lung function decline could continue. We hypothesised that former smokers and low-intensity current smokers have accelerated lung function decline compared with never-smokers, including among those without prevalent lung disease.

METHODS: We used data on six US population-based cohorts included in the NHLBI Pooled Cohort Study. We restricted the sample to participants with valid spirometry at two or more exams. Two cohorts recruited younger adults (>=17 years), two recruited middle-aged and older adults (>=45 years), and two recruited only elderly adults (>=65 years) with examinations done between 1983 and 2014. FEV decline in sustained former smokers and current smokers was compared to that of never-smokers by use of mixed models adjusted for sociodemographic and anthropometric factors. Differential FEV decline was also evaluated according to duration of smoking cessation and cumulative (number of pack-years) and current (number of cigarettes per day) cigarette consumption.

FINDINGS: 25 352 participants (ages 17-93 years) completed 70 228 valid spirometry exams. Over a median follow-up of 7 years (IQR 3-20), FEV decline at the median age (57 years) was 31{\textperiodcentered}01 mL per year (95\% CI 30{\textperiodcentered}66-31{\textperiodcentered}37) in sustained never-smokers, 34{\textperiodcentered}97 mL per year (34{\textperiodcentered}36-35{\textperiodcentered}57) in former smokers, and 39{\textperiodcentered}92 mL per year (38{\textperiodcentered}92-40{\textperiodcentered}92) in current smokers. With adjustment, former smokers showed an accelerated FEV decline of 1{\textperiodcentered}82 mL per year (95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}24-2{\textperiodcentered}40) compared to never-smokers, which was approximately 20\% of the effect estimate for current smokers (9{\textperiodcentered}21 mL per year; 95\% CI 8{\textperiodcentered}35-10{\textperiodcentered}08). Compared to never-smokers, accelerated FEV decline was observed in former smokers for decades after smoking cessation and in current smokers with low cumulative cigarette consumption (<10 pack-years). With respect to current cigarette consumption, the effect estimate for FEV decline in current smokers consuming less than five cigarettes per day (7{\textperiodcentered}65 mL per year; 95\% CI 6{\textperiodcentered}21-9{\textperiodcentered}09) was 68\% of that in current smokers consuming 30 or more cigarettes per day (11{\textperiodcentered}24 mL per year; 9{\textperiodcentered}86-12{\textperiodcentered}62), and around five times greater than in former smokers (1{\textperiodcentered}57 mL per year; 1{\textperiodcentered}00-2{\textperiodcentered}14). Among participants without prevalent lung disease, associations were attenuated but were consistent with the main results.

INTERPRETATION: Former smokers and low-intensity current smokers have accelerated lung function decline compared with never-smokers. These results suggest that all levels of smoking exposure are likely to be associated with lasting and progressive lung damage.

FUNDING: National Institutes of Health, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and US Environmental Protection Agency.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Case-Control Studies, Ex-Smokers, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Lung, Male, Middle Aged, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Non-Smokers, Respiratory Physiological Phenomena, Smokers, Smoking, Spirometry, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {2213-2619}, doi = {10.1016/S2213-2600(19)30276-0}, author = {Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Balte, Pallavi P and Bhatt, Surya P and Cassano, Patricia A and Couper, David and Folsom, Aaron R and Freedman, Neal D and Jacobs, David R and Kalhan, Ravi and Mathew, Amanda R and Kronmal, Richard A and Loehr, Laura R and London, Stephanie J and Newman, Anne B and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Schwartz, Joseph E and Smith, Lewis J and White, Wendy B and Yende, Sachin} }