@article {1170, title = {Common variants in KCNN3 are associated with lone atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Mar}, pages = {240-4}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia. Previous studies have identified several genetic loci associated with typical AF. We sought to identify common genetic variants underlying lone AF. This condition affects a subset of individuals without overt heart disease and with an increased heritability of AF. We report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies conducted using 1,335 individuals with lone AF (cases) and 12,844 unaffected individuals (referents). Cases were obtained from the German AF Network, Heart and Vascular Health Study, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Cleveland Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital. We identified an association on chromosome 1q21 to lone AF (rs13376333, adjusted odds ratio = 1.56; P = 6.3 x 10(-12)), and we replicated this association in two independent cohorts with lone AF (overall combined odds ratio = 1.52, 95\% CI 1.40-1.64; P = 1.83 x 10(-21)). rs13376333 is intronic to KCNN3, which encodes a potassium channel protein involved in atrial repolarization.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Introns, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Small-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels, Young Adult}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.537}, author = {Ellinor, Patrick T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Glazer, Nicole L and Pfeufer, Arne and Alonso, Alvaro and Chung, Mina K and Sinner, Moritz F and de Bakker, Paul I W and Mueller, Martina and Lubitz, Steven A and Fox, Ervin and Darbar, Dawood and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Jonathan D and Schnabel, Renate B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Rice, Kenneth M and Van Wagoner, David R and Beckmann, Britt-M and van Noord, Charlotte and Wang, Ke and Ehret, Georg B and Rotter, Jerome I and Hazen, Stanley L and Steinbeck, Gerhard and Smith, Albert V and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Makino, Seiko and Nelis, Mari and Milan, David J and Perz, Siegfried and Esko, T{\~o}nu and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Moebus, Susanne and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Li, Man and M{\"o}hlenkamp, Stefan and Wang, Thomas J and Kao, W H Linda and Vasan, Ramachandran S and N{\"o}then, Markus M and MacRae, Calum A and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Levy, Daniel and Boerwinkle, Eric and Metspalu, Andres and Topol, Eric J and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Psaty, Bruce M and Roden, Dan M and Meitinger, Thomas and Wichmann, H-Erich and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Barnard, John and Arking, Dan E and Benjamin, Emelia J and Heckbert, Susan R and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan} } @article {1271, title = {CUBN is a gene locus for albuminuria.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {22}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Mar}, pages = {555-70}, abstract = {

Identification of genetic risk factors for albuminuria may alter strategies for early prevention of CKD progression, particularly among patients with diabetes. Little is known about the influence of common genetic variants on albuminuria in both general and diabetic populations. We performed a meta-analysis of data from 63,153 individuals of European ancestry with genotype information from genome-wide association studies (CKDGen Consortium) and from a large candidate gene study (CARe Consortium) to identify susceptibility loci for the quantitative trait urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) and the clinical diagnosis microalbuminuria. We identified an association between a missense variant (I2984V) in the CUBN gene, which encodes cubilin, and both UACR (P = 1.1 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) and microalbuminuria (P = 0.001). We observed similar associations among 6981 African Americans in the CARe Consortium. The associations between this variant and both UACR and microalbuminuria were significant in individuals of European ancestry regardless of diabetes status. Finally, this variant associated with a 41\% increased risk for the development of persistent microalbuminuria during 20 years of follow-up among 1304 participants with type 1 diabetes in the prospective DCCT/EDIC Study. In summary, we identified a missense CUBN variant that associates with levels of albuminuria in both the general population and in individuals with diabetes.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Albuminuria, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Mutation, Missense, Receptors, Cell Surface}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2010060598}, author = {B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Tin, Adrienne and Olden, Matthias and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and de Boer, Ian H and Fuchsberger, Christian and O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Pattaro, Cristian and Teumer, Alexander and Liu, Ching-Ti and Glazer, Nicole L and Li, Man and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Peralta, Carmen A and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Zhao, Jing Hua and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Akylbekova, Ermeg and Kramer, Holly and van der Harst, Pim and Smith, Albert V and Lohman, Kurt and de Andrade, Mariza and Hayward, Caroline and Kollerits, Barbara and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Aspelund, Thor and Ingelsson, Erik and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Shuldiner, Alan R and Mitchell, Braxton D and Arking, Dan E and Franceschini, Nora and Boerwinkle, Eric and Egan, Josephine and Hernandez, Dena and Reilly, Muredach and Townsend, Raymond R and Lumley, Thomas and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Haritunians, Talin and Bergmann, Sven and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Mooser, Vincent and Waterworth, Dawn and Johnson, Andrew D and Florez, Jose C and Meigs, James B and Lu, Xiaoning and Turner, Stephen T and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Leak, Tennille S and Aasar{\o}d, Knut and Skorpen, Frank and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Illig, Thomas and Baumert, Jens and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Devuyst, Olivier and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Minelli, Cosetta and Bakker, Stephan J L and Kedenko, Lyudmyla and Paulweber, Bernhard and Coassin, Stefan and Endlich, Karlhans and Kroemer, Heyo K and Biffar, Reiner and Stracke, Sylvia and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Stumvoll, Michael and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Campbell, Harry and Vitart, Veronique and Hastie, Nicholas D and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Yongmei and Polasek, Ozren and Curhan, Gary and Kronenberg, Florian and Prokopenko, Inga and Rudan, Igor and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Hallan, Stein and Navis, Gerjan and Parsa, Afshin and Ferrucci, Luigi and Coresh, Josef and Shlipak, Michael G and Bull, Shelley B and Paterson, Nicholas J and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wareham, Nicholas J and Loos, Ruth J F and Rotter, Jerome I and Pramstaller, Peter P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Beckmann, Jacques S and Yang, Qiong and Heid, Iris M and Rettig, Rainer and Dreisbach, Albert W and Bochud, Murielle and Fox, Caroline S and Kao, W H L} } @article {6288, title = {Common variants in Mendelian kidney disease genes and their association with renal function.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {24}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec}, pages = {2105-17}, abstract = {

Many common genetic variants identified by genome-wide association studies for complex traits map to genes previously linked to rare inherited Mendelian disorders. A systematic analysis of common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes responsible for Mendelian diseases with kidney phenotypes has not been performed. We thus developed a comprehensive database of genes for Mendelian kidney conditions and evaluated the association between common genetic variants within these genes and kidney function in the general population. Using the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man database, we identified 731 unique disease entries related to specific renal search terms and confirmed a kidney phenotype in 218 of these entries, corresponding to mutations in 258 genes. We interrogated common SNPs (minor allele frequency >5\%) within these genes for association with the estimated GFR in 74,354 European-ancestry participants from the CKDGen Consortium. However, the top four candidate SNPs (rs6433115 at LRP2, rs1050700 at TSC1, rs249942 at PALB2, and rs9827843 at ROBO2) did not achieve significance in a stage 2 meta-analysis performed in 56,246 additional independent individuals, indicating that these common SNPs are not associated with estimated GFR. The effect of less common or rare variants in these genes on kidney function in the general population and disease-specific cohorts requires further research.

}, keywords = {Databases, Genetic, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Kidney, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2012100983}, author = {Parsa, Afshin and Fuchsberger, Christian and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Pattaro, Cristian and de Andrade, Mariza and Chasman, Daniel I and Teumer, Alexander and Endlich, Karlhans and Olden, Matthias and Chen, Ming-Huei and Tin, Adrienne and Kim, Young J and Taliun, Daniel and Li, Man and Feitosa, Mary and Gorski, Mathias and Yang, Qiong and Hundertmark, Claudia and Foster, Meredith C and Glazer, Nicole and Isaacs, Aaron and Rao, Madhumathi and Smith, Albert V and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Struchalin, Maksim and Tanaka, Toshiko and Li, Guo and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Lohman, Kurt and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Johansson, Asa and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Dehghan, Abbas and Couraki, Vincent and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Sorice, Rossella and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Deshmukh, Harshal and Ulivi, Sheila and Chu, Audrey Y and Murgia, Federico and Trompet, Stella and Imboden, Medea and Kollerits, Barbara and Pistis, Giorgio and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Mitchell, Braxton D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Schmidt, Helena and Hofer, Edith and Hu, Frank and Demirkan, Ayse and Oostra, Ben A and Turner, Stephen T and Ding, Jingzhong and Andrews, Jeanette S and Freedman, Barry I and Giulianini, Franco and Koenig, Wolfgang and Illig, Thomas and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Wichmann, H-Erich and Zgaga, Lina and Zemunik, Tatijana and Boban, Mladen and Minelli, Cosetta and Wheeler, Heather E and Igl, Wilmar and Zaboli, Ghazal and Wild, Sarah H and Wright, Alan F and Campbell, Harry and Ellinghaus, David and N{\"o}thlings, Ute and Jacobs, Gunnar and Biffar, Reiner and Ernst, Florian and Homuth, Georg and Kroemer, Heyo K and Nauck, Matthias and Stracke, Sylvia and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kovacs, Peter and Stumvoll, Michael and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Polasek, Ozren and Hastie, Nick and Vitart, Veronique and Helmer, Catherine and Wang, Jie Jin and Stengel, B{\'e}n{\'e}dicte and Ruggiero, Daniela and Bergmann, Sven and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Nikopensius, Tiit and Province, Michael and Colhoun, Helen and Doney, Alex and Robino, Antonietta and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Portas, Laura and Ford, Ian and Buckley, Brendan M and Adam, Martin and Thun, Gian-Andri and Paulweber, Bernhard and Haun, Margot and Sala, Cinzia and Mitchell, Paul and Ciullo, Marina and Vollenweider, Peter and Raitakari, Olli and Metspalu, Andres and Palmer, Colin and Gasparini, Paolo and Pirastu, Mario and Jukema, J Wouter and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Kronenberg, Florian and Toniolo, Daniela and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Shuldiner, Alan R and Coresh, Josef and Schmidt, Reinhold and Ferrucci, Luigi and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Yongmei and Curhan, Gary C and Rudan, Igor and Gyllensten, Ulf and Wilson, James F and Franke, Andre and Pramstaller, Peter P and Rettig, Rainer and Prokopenko, Inga and Witteman, Jacqueline and Hayward, Caroline and Ridker, Paul M and Bochud, Murielle and Heid, Iris M and Siscovick, David S and Fox, Caroline S and Kao, W Linda and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A} } @article {6607, title = {The challenges of genome-wide interaction studies: lessons to learn from the analysis of HDL blood levels.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e109290}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed 74 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) blood levels. This study is, to our knowledge, the first genome-wide interaction study (GWIS) to identify SNP{\texttimes}SNP interactions associated with HDL levels. We performed a GWIS in the Rotterdam Study (RS) cohort I (RS-I) using the GLIDE tool which leverages the massively parallel computing power of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to perform linear regression on all genome-wide pairs of SNPs. By performing a meta-analysis together with Rotterdam Study cohorts II and III (RS-II and RS-III), we were able to filter 181 interaction terms with a p-value<1 {\textperiodcentered} 10-8 that replicated in the two independent cohorts. We were not able to replicate any of these interaction term in the AGES, ARIC, CHS, ERF, FHS and NFBC-66 cohorts (Ntotal = 30,011) when adjusting for multiple testing. Our GWIS resulted in the consistent finding of a possible interaction between rs774801 in ARMC8 (ENSG00000114098) and rs12442098 in SPATA8 (ENSG00000185594) being associated with HDL levels. However, p-values do not reach the preset Bonferroni correction of the p-values. Our study suggest that even for highly genetically determined traits such as HDL the sample sizes needed to detect SNP{\texttimes}SNP interactions are large and the 2-step filtering approaches do not yield a solution. Here we present our analysis plan and our reservations concerning GWIS.

}, keywords = {Cholesterol, HDL, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0109290}, author = {van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M and Smouter, Fran{\c c}oise A S and Kam-Thong, Tony and Karbalai, Nazanin and Smith, Albert V and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Sitlani, Colleen M and Li, Guo and Brody, Jennifer A and Bis, Joshua C and White, Charles C and Jaiswal, Alok and Oostra, Ben A and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ballantyne, Christie M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Psaty, Bruce M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Ripatti, Samuli and Isaacs, Aaron and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Karssen, Lennart C and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {7340, title = {The complex genetics of gait speed: genome-wide meta-analysis approach.}, journal = {Aging (Albany NY)}, volume = {9}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jan 10}, pages = {209-246}, abstract = {

Emerging evidence suggests that the basis for variation in late-life mobility is attributable, in part, to genetic factors, which may become increasingly important with age. Our objective was to systematically assess the contribution of genetic variation to gait speed in older individuals. We conducted a meta-analysis of gait speed GWASs in 31,478 older adults from 17 cohorts of the CHARGE consortium, and validated our results in 2,588 older adults from 4 independent studies. We followed our initial discoveries with network and eQTL analysis of candidate signals in tissues. The meta-analysis resulted in a list of 536 suggestive genome wide significant SNPs in or near 69 genes. Further interrogation with Pathway Analysis placed gait speed as a polygenic complex trait in five major networks. Subsequent eQTL analysis revealed several SNPs significantly associated with the expression of PRSS16, WDSUB1 and PTPRT, which in addition to the meta-analysis and pathway suggested that genetic effects on gait speed may occur through synaptic function and neuronal development pathways. No genome-wide significant signals for gait speed were identified from this moderately large sample of older adults, suggesting that more refined physical function phenotypes will be needed to identify the genetic basis of gait speed in aging.

}, issn = {1945-4589}, doi = {10.18632/aging.101151}, author = {Ben-Avraham, Dan and Karasik, David and Verghese, Joe and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Smith, Jennifer A and Eicher, John D and Vered, Rotem and Deelen, Joris and Arnold, Alice M and Buchman, Aron S and Tanaka, Toshiko and Faul, Jessica D and Nethander, Maria and Fornage, Myriam and Adams, Hieab H and Matteini, Amy M and Callisaya, Michele L and Smith, Albert V and Yu, Lei and De Jager, Philip L and Evans, Denis A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Pattie, Alison and Corley, Janie and Launer, Lenore J and Knopman, Davis S and Parimi, Neeta and Turner, Stephen T and Bandinelli, Stefania and Beekman, Marian and Gutman, Danielle and Sharvit, Lital and Mooijaart, Simon P and Liewald, David C and Houwing-Duistermaat, Jeanine J and Ohlsson, Claes and Moed, Matthijs and Verlinden, Vincent J and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and van der Geest, Jos N and Karlsson, Magnus and Hernandez, Dena and McWhirter, Rebekah and Liu, Yongmei and Thomson, Russell and Tranah, Gregory J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Weir, David R and Zhao, Wei and Starr, John M and Johnson, Andrew D and Ikram, M Arfan and Bennett, David A and Cummings, Steven R and Deary, Ian J and Harris, Tamara B and Kardia, Sharon L R and Mosley, Thomas H and Srikanth, Velandai K and Windham, Beverly G and Newman, Ann B and Walston, Jeremy D and Davies, Gail and Evans, Daniel S and Slagboom, Eline P and Ferrucci, Luigi and Kiel, Douglas P and Murabito, Joanne M and Atzmon, Gil} } @article {7801, title = {Common and Rare Coding Genetic Variation Underlying the Electrocardiographic PR Interval.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {11}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 May}, pages = {e002037}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Electrical conduction from the cardiac sinoatrial node to the ventricles is critical for normal heart function. Genome-wide association studies have identified more than a dozen common genetic loci that are associated with PR interval. However, it is unclear whether rare and low-frequency variants also contribute to PR interval heritability.

METHODS: We performed large-scale meta-analyses of the PR interval that included 83 367 participants of European ancestry and 9436 of African ancestry. We examined both common and rare variants associated with the PR interval.

RESULTS: We identified 31 genetic loci that were significantly associated with PR interval after Bonferroni correction (<1.2{\texttimes}10), including 11 novel loci that have not been reported previously. Many of these loci are involved in heart morphogenesis. In gene-based analysis, we found that multiple rare variants at (=5.9{\texttimes}10) and (=1.1{\texttimes}10) were associated with PR interval. locus also was implicated in the common variant analysis, whereas was a novel locus.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified common variants at 11 novel loci and rare variants within 2 gene regions that were significantly associated with PR interval. Our findings provide novel insights to the current understanding of atrioventricular conduction, which is critical for cardiac activity and an important determinant of health.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.117.002037}, author = {Lin, Honghuang and van Setten, Jessica and Smith, Albert V and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Warren, Helen R and Brody, Jennifer A and Radmanesh, Farid and Hall, Leanne and Grarup, Niels and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Boutin, Thibaud and Verweij, Niek and Lin, Henry J and Li-Gao, Ruifang and van den Berg, Marten E and Marten, Jonathan and Weiss, Stefan and Prins, Bram P and Haessler, Jeffrey and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mei, Hao and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Li, Man and Alonso, Alvaro and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Connell, John M and Huang, Paul L and Weng, Lu-Chen and Jameson, Heather S and Hucker, William and Hanley, Alan and Tucker, Nathan R and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Bis, Joshua C and Rice, Kenneth M and Sitlani, Colleen M and Kors, Jan A and Xie, Zhijun and Wen, Chengping and Magnani, Jared W and Nelson, Christopher P and Kanters, J{\o}rgen K and Sinner, Moritz F and Strauch, Konstantin and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Meitinger, Thomas and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Pedersen, Oluf and Linneberg, Allan and Rudan, Igor and de Boer, Rudolf A and van der Meer, Peter and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Taylor, Kent D and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Rotter, Jerome I and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Trompet, Stella and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andre and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Smith, Blair H and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Felix, Stephan B and Homuth, Georg and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Timothy D and Bots, Michiel L and Perez, Marco and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Raitakari, Olli T and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Arking, Dan E and Munroe, Patricia B and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Rosand, Jonathan and Samani, Nilesh J and Hansen, Torben and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Polasek, Ozren and van der Harst, Pim and Heckbert, Susan R and Jukema, J Wouter and Stricker, Bruno H and Hayward, Caroline and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Jamshidi, Yalda and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Kooperberg, Charles and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Wilson, James G and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A and Isaacs, Aaron} } @article {9505, title = {Complexities of cerebral small vessel disease, blood pressure, and dementia relationship: new insights from genetics.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 13}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: There is increasing recognition that vascular disease, which can be treated, is a key contributor to dementia risk. However, the contribution of specific markers of vascular disease is unclear and, as a consequence, optimal prevention strategies remain unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To disentangle the causal relation of several key vascular traits to dementia risk: (i) white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden, a highly prevalent imaging marker of covert cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD); (ii) clinical stroke; and (iii) blood pressure (BP), the leading risk factor for cSVD and stroke, for which efficient therapies exist. To account for potential epidemiological biases inherent to late-onset conditions like dementia.

DESIGN SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This study first explored the association of genetically determined WMH, BP levels and stroke risk with AD using summary-level data from large genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) framework. Second, leveraging individual-level data from large longitudinal population-based cohorts and biobanks with prospective dementia surveillance, the association of weighted genetic risk scores (wGRSs) for WMH, BP, and stroke with incident all-cause-dementia was explored using Cox-proportional hazard and multi-state models. The data analysis was performed from July 26, 2020, through July 24, 2022.

EXPOSURES: Genetically determined levels of WMH volume and BP (systolic, diastolic and pulse blood pressures) and genetic liability to stroke.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The summary-level MR analyses focused on the outcomes from GWAS of clinically diagnosed AD (n-cases=21,982) and GWAS additionally including self-reported parental history of dementia as a proxy for AD diagnosis (AD , n-cases=53,042). For the longitudinal analyses, individual-level data of 157,698 participants with 10,699 incident all-cause-dementia were studied, exploring AD, vascular or mixed dementia in secondary analyses.

RESULTS: In the two-sample MR analyses, WMH showed strong evidence for a causal association with increased risk of AD (OR, 1.16; 95\%CI:1.05-1.28; P=.003) and AD (OR, 1.28; 95\%CI:1.07-1.53; P=.008), after accounting for genetically determined pulse pressure for the latter. Genetically predicted BP traits showed evidence for a protective association with both clinically defined AD and AD , with evidence for confounding by shared genetic instruments. In longitudinal analyses the wGRSs for WMH, but not BP or stroke, showed suggestive association with incident all-cause-dementia (HR, 1.02; 95\%CI:1.00-1.04; P=.06). BP and stroke wGRSs were strongly associated with mortality but there was no evidence for selective survival bias during follow-up. In secondary analyses, polygenic scores with more liberal instrument definition showed association of both WMH and stroke with all-cause-dementia, AD, and vascular or mixed dementia; associations of stroke, but not WMH, with dementia outcomes were markedly attenuated after adjusting for interim stroke.

CONCLUSION: These findings provide converging evidence that WMH is a leading vascular contributor to dementia risk, which may better capture the brain damage caused by BP (and other etiologies) than BP itself and should be targeted in priority for dementia prevention in the population.

KEY POINTS: Do instrumental variable analyses leveraging genetic information provide evidence for a causal association of various vascular traits with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) and all-cause-dementia? How do these associations compare for white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden, a highly prevalent marker of covert cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD), stroke, and blood pressure traits, the strongest known risk factor for cSVD and stroke? Using Mendelian randomization (MR) leveraging large, published genome-wide association studies, this study showed a putative causal association of larger WMH burden with increased AD risk after accounting for pulse pressure effects, and some evidence for association of lower BP with AD risk with possible confounding by shared genetic instruments. Longitudinal analyses on individual-level data also supported association of genetically determined WMH with incident all-cause-dementia and AD, independently of interim stroke. This study using complementary genetic epidemiology approaches, identified increasing WMH burden to be associated with dementia and AD risk, suggesting the association as specific for cSVD and independent of BP and stroke.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.08.08.23293761}, author = {Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Soumar{\'e}, A{\"\i}cha and Bis, Joshua C and Surakka, Ida and J{\"u}rgenson, Tuuli and Joly, Pierre and Knol, Maria J and Wang, Ruiqi and Yang, Qiong and Satizabal, Claudia L and Gudjonsson, Alexander and Mishra, Aniket and Bouteloup, Vincent and Phuah, Chia-Ling and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Cruchaga, Carlos and Dufouil, Carole and Chene, Genevi{\`e}ve and Lopez, Oscar and Psaty, Bruce M and Tzourio, Christophe and Amouyel, Philippe and Adams, Hieab H and Jacqmin-Gadda, H{\'e}l{\`e}ne and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Milani, Lili and Winsvold, Bendik S and Hveem, Kristian and Matthews, Paul M and Longstreth, W T and Seshadri, Sudha and Launer, Lenore J and Debette, Stephanie} } @article {9918, title = {Clinical and Imaging Markers of Cardiac Function and Brain Health: A Meta-Analysis of Community-Based Studies.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {104}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 22}, pages = {e213421}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cardiac dysfunction and heart failure are linked to cognitive impairment, but the underlying brain pathology remains undetermined. We investigated associations between cardiac function (measured by echocardiography or cardiac MRI), clinical heart failure, and structural markers on brain MRI, including volumes of gray and white matter (WM), the hippocampus, and white matter hyperintensities (WMHs).

METHODS: We leverage data from 7 prospective, community-based cohorts across Europe and the United States, all part of the Cross-Cohort Collaboration. The included cohorts were the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, Austrian Stroke Prevention Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Heart Study, Rotterdam Study, and Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-START and SHIP-TREND). Each cohort performed cross-sectional multivariable linear regression analyses, after which estimates were pooled through random-effects meta-analysis. Heterogeneity was assessed by the index (\%).

RESULTS: Among 10,889 participants (mean age: 66.8 years, range 52.0-76.0; 56.7\% women), markers of systolic dysfunction were consistently associated with smaller total brain volume (TBV) (e.g., adjusted standardized mean difference for moderate to severe dysfunction -0.19, 95\% CI -0.31 to -0.07, = 20\%). Impaired relaxation and restrictive diastolic dysfunction were also associated with smaller TBV (e.g., for impaired relaxation -0.08, 95\% CI -0.15 to -0.01, = 32\%) and hippocampal volume (-0.18, 95\% CI -0.33 to -0.03, = 0\%), with similar results for the E/A-ratio. Systolic and diastolic dysfunction was not consistently associated with volume of WMHs. Among 5 cohorts with available data, 302 (3.4\%) participants had clinical heart failure, which was associated with smaller brain volumes, particularly in the hippocampus (-0.13, 95\% CI -0.23 to -0.02, = 1\%).

DISCUSSION: In this large study among community-dwelling adults, subclinical cardiac dysfunction was associated with brain imaging markers of neurodegeneration. These findings encourage longitudinal investigations on the effect of maintaining cardiac function on brain health.

}, keywords = {Aged, Brain, Cohort Studies, Echocardiography, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, White Matter}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000213421}, author = {Yaqub, Amber and Bis, Joshua C and Frenzel, Stefan and Koini, Marisa and Mbangdadji, Djass and Peloso, Gina M and Talluri, Rajesh and Alonso, Alvaro and Bahls, Martin and B{\"u}low, Robin and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Felix, Stephan and Fohner, Alison and Friedrich, Nele and Hofer, Edith and Kavousi, Maryam and Launer, Lenore J and Le, Tran and Longstreth, Will and Mosley, Thomas H and Vernooij, Meike W and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wittfeld, Katharina and Beiser, Alexa S and Grabe, Hans J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Psaty, Bruce M and Schmidt, Reinhold and Simino, Jeannette and Seshadri, Sudha and Wolters, Frank J} }