@article {932, title = {Association of polymorphisms in the CRP gene with circulating C-reactive protein levels and cardiovascular events.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {296}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Dec 13}, pages = {2703-11}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: C-reactive protein (CRP) is an inflammation protein that may play a role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether polymorphisms in the CRP gene are associated with plasma CRP, carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), and CVD events.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In the prospective, population-based Cardiovascular Health Study, 4 tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (1919A/T, 2667G/C, 3872G/A, 5237A/G) were genotyped in 3941 white (European American) participants and 5 tag SNPs (addition of 790A/T) were genotyped in 700 black (African American) participants, aged 65 years or older, all of whom were without myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke before study entry. Median follow-up was 13 years (1989-2003).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Baseline CIMT; occurrence of MI, stroke, and CVD mortality during follow-up.

RESULTS: In white participants, 461 incident MIs, 491 incident strokes, and 490 CVD-related deaths occurred; in black participants, 67 incident MIs, 78 incident strokes, and 75 CVD-related deaths occurred. The 1919T and 790T alleles were associated with higher CRP levels in white and black participants, respectively. The 3872A allele was associated with lower CRP levels in both populations, and the 2667C allele was associated with lower CRP levels in white participants only. There was no association between CIMT and any CRP gene polymorphism in either population. In white participants, the 1919T allele was associated with increased risk of stroke for TT vs AA (hazard ratio [HR], 1.40; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-1.87) and for CVD mortality (HR, 1.40; 95\% CI, 1.10-1.90). In black participants, homozygosity for the 790T allele was associated with a 4-fold increased risk of MI compared with homozygosity for the 790A allele (95\% CI, 1.58-10.53). The minor alleles of the 2 SNPs associated with lower plasma CRP concentration in white participants (2667C and 3872A) were associated with decreased risk of CVD mortality.

CONCLUSIONS: Genetic variation in the CRP gene is associated with plasma CRP levels and CVD risk in older adults.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Arteries, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genotype, Humans, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk, Stroke, Tunica Intima}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.296.22.2703}, author = {Lange, Leslie A and Carlson, Christopher S and Hindorff, Lucia A and Lange, Ethan M and Walston, Jeremy and Durda, J Peter and Cushman, Mary and Bis, Joshua C and Zeng, Donglin and Lin, Danyu and Kuller, Lewis H and Nickerson, Deborah A and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1019, title = {Associations between common fibrinogen gene polymorphisms and cardiovascular disease in older adults. The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Thromb Haemost}, volume = {99}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Feb}, pages = {388-95}, abstract = {

Elevated plasma fibrinogen is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), but associations between fibrinogen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and disease risk are inconsistent. We investigated whether common (> or = 5\% minor allele frequency) variation in the fibrinogen genes (FGA, FGB, FGG) is associated with fibrinogen concentration, carotid artery intima-medial thickness (IMT) and risk of incident myocardial infarction (MI), ischemic stroke and CVD mortality in European- (EA) and African-descent (AA) adults (> or = 65 years) from the Cardiovascular Health Study. TagSNPs were genotyped in 3,969 EA and 719 AA free of MI or stroke at baseline. Race-specific models included multiple testing correction and adjustment for sex, age and site. Among EA, minor alleles of FGA3807, FGB1437 and FGG902 were associated with higher fibrinogen levels; whereas FGA251, FGA2224, FGA6534 and FGG10034 were associated with lower levels, p<0.004 for each. Strongest associations were seen for FGB1437; each additional copy of the minor allele was associated with 13 mg/dl (95\%CI: 9-16) higher fibrinogen level. Similar trends in AA were not significant. Fibrinogen haplotypes were not significantly associated with internal or common carotid IMT. No associations with MI or CVD mortality were seen in EA, though FGB1038 and FGG902 were significantly associated with increased and decreased risk of stroke in men, respectively, as were related haplotypes. FGB1038 was also associated with CVD mortality in AA, HR = 1.9 (95\%CI: 1.3-2.7). In conclusion, while fibrinogen genetic variation was strongly associated with fibrinogen levels, there was less evidence of association with the more complex outcomes of IMT and CVD events.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Aged, Brain Ischemia, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Artery Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Haplotypes, Humans, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population Surveillance, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Stroke, United States}, issn = {0340-6245}, doi = {10.1160/TH07-08-0523}, author = {Carty, Cara L and Cushman, Mary and Jones, Daniel and Lange, Leslie A and Hindorff, Lucia A and Rice, Kenneth and Jenny, Nancy S and Durda, J Peter and Walston, Jeremy and Carlson, Christopher S and Nickerson, Debbie and Tracy, Russell P and Reiner, Alex P} } @article {986, title = {Common variants in the CRP gene in relation to longevity and cause-specific mortality in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {197}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Apr}, pages = {922-30}, abstract = {

Common polymorphisms in the CRP gene are associated with plasma CRP levels in population-based studies, but associations with age-related events are uncertain. A previous study of CRP haplotypes in older adults was broadened to include longevity and cause-specific mortality (all-cause, noncardiovascular (non-CV), and cardiovascular (CV)). Common haplotypes were inferred from four tagSNPs in 4512 whites and five tagSNPs in 812 blacks from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal cohort of adults over age 65. Exploratory analyses addressed early versus late mortality. CRP haplotypes were not associated with all-cause mortality or longevity overall in either population, but associations with all-cause mortality differed during early and late periods. In blacks, the haplotype tagged by 3872A (rs1205) was associated with increased risk of non-CV mortality, relative to other haplotypes (adjusted hazard ratio for each additional copy: 1.42, 95\% CI: 1.07, 1.87). Relative to other haplotypes, this haplotype was associated with decreased risk of early but not decreased risk of late CV mortality in blacks; among whites, a haplotype tagged by 2667C (rs1800947) gave similar but nonsignificant findings. If confirmed, CRP genetic variants may be weakly associated with CV and non-CV mortality in older adults, particularly in self-identified blacks.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Haplotypes, Humans, Linear Models, Longevity, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, United States}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2007.08.012}, author = {Hindorff, Lucia A and Rice, Kenneth M and Lange, Leslie A and Diehr, Paula and Halder, Indrani and Walston, Jeremy and Kwok, Pui and Ziv, Elad and Nievergelt, Caroline and Cummings, Steven R and Newman, Anne B and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1028, title = {Polymorphisms of the HNF1A gene encoding hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 alpha are associated with C-reactive protein.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {82}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 May}, pages = {1193-201}, abstract = {

Data from the Pharmacogenomics and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease (PARC) study and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) provide independent and confirmatory evidence for association between common polymorphisms of the HNF1A gene encoding hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 alpha and plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration. Analyses with the use of imputation-based methods to combine genotype data from both studies and to test untyped SNPs from the HapMap database identified several SNPs within a 5 kb region of HNF1A intron 1 with the strongest evidence of association with CRP phenotype.

}, keywords = {Aged, Bayes Theorem, C-Reactive Protein, Female, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 1-alpha, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Pravastatin, Simvastatin}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.03.017}, author = {Reiner, Alexander P and Barber, Mathew J and Guan, Yongtao and Ridker, Paul M and Lange, Leslie A and Chasman, Daniel I and Walston, Jeremy D and Cooper, Gregory M and Jenny, Nancy S and Rieder, Mark J and Durda, J Peter and Smith, Joshua D and Novembre, John and Tracy, Russell P and Rotter, Jerome I and Stephens, Matthew and Nickerson, Deborah A and Krauss, Ronald M} } @article {1154, title = {Common coding variants of the HNF1A gene are associated with multiple cardiovascular risk phenotypes in community-based samples of younger and older European-American adults: the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study and The Cardiovascula}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {2}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jun}, pages = {244-54}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The transcription factor hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)-1 alpha regulates the activity of a number of genes involved in innate immunity, blood coagulation, lipid and glucose transport and metabolism, and cellular detoxification. Common polymorphisms of the HNF-1 alpha gene (HNF1A) were recently associated with plasma C-reactive protein and gamma-glutamyl transferase concentration in middle-aged to older European Americans (EA).

METHODS AND RESULTS: We assessed whether common variants of HNF1A are associated with C-reactive protein, gamma-glutamyl transferase, and other atherosclerotic and metabolic risk factors, in the large, population-based Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study of healthy young EA (n=2154) and African American (AA; n=2083) adults. The minor alleles of Ile27Leu (rs1169288) and Ser486Asn (rs2464196) were associated with 0.10 to 0.15 standard deviation units lower C-reactive protein and gamma-glutamyl transferase levels in EA. The same HNF1A coding variants were associated with higher low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein B, creatinine, and fibrinogen in EA. We replicated the associations between HNF1A coding variants and C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and renal function in a second population-based sample of EA adults 65 years and older from the Cardiovascular Health Study. The HNF1A Ser486Asn and/or Ile27Leu variants were also associated with increased risk of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis in Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults and with incident coronary heart disease in Cardiovascular Health Study. The Ile27Leu and Ser486Asn variants were 3-fold less common in AA than in EA. There was little evidence of association between HNF1A genotype and atherosclerosis-related phenotypes in AA.

CONCLUSIONS: Common polymorphisms of HNF1A seem to influence multiple phenotypes related to cardiovascular risk in the general population of younger and older EA adults.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, gamma-Glutamyltransferase, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 1-alpha, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.108.839506}, author = {Reiner, Alexander P and Gross, Myron D and Carlson, Christopher S and Bielinski, Suzette J and Lange, Leslie A and Fornage, Myriam and Jenny, Nancy S and Walston, Jeremy and Tracy, Russell P and Williams, O Dale and Jacobs, David R and Nickerson, Deborah A} } @article {1081, title = {Inflammation and stress-related candidate genes, plasma interleukin-6 levels, and longevity in older adults.}, journal = {Exp Gerontol}, volume = {44}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 May}, pages = {350-5}, abstract = {

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is an inflammatory cytokine that influences the development of inflammatory and aging-related disorders and ultimately longevity. In order to study the influence of variants in genes that regulate inflammatory response on IL-6 levels and longevity, we screened a panel of 477 tag SNPs across 87 candidate genes in >5000 older participants from the population-based Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Baseline plasma IL-6 concentration was first confirmed as a strong predictor of all-cause mortality. Functional alleles of the IL6R and PARP1 genes were significantly associated with 15\%-20\% higher baseline IL-6 concentration per copy among CHS European-American (EA) participants (all p<10(-4)). In a case/control analysis nested within this EA cohort, the minor allele of PARP1 rs1805415 was nominally associated with decreased longevity (p=0.001), but there was no evidence of association between IL6R genotype and longevity. The PARP1 rs1805415--longevity association was subsequently replicated in one of two independent case/control studies. In a pooled analysis of all three studies, the "risk" of longevity associated with the minor allele of PARP1 rs1805415 was 0.79 (95\%CI 0.62-1.02; p=0.07). These findings warrant further study of the potential role of PARP1 genotype in inflammatory and aging-related phenotypes.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cardiovascular Diseases, Case-Control Studies, Female, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Inflammation, Interleukin-6, Longevity, Male, Phenotype, Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase-1, Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases, Risk Factors}, issn = {1873-6815}, doi = {10.1016/j.exger.2009.02.004}, author = {Walston, Jeremy D and Matteini, Amy M and Nievergelt, Caroline and Lange, Leslie A and Fallin, Dani M and Barzilai, Nir and Ziv, Elad and Pawlikowska, Ludmila and Kwok, Pui and Cummings, Steve R and Kooperberg, Charles and LaCroix, Andrea and Tracy, Russell P and Atzmon, Gil and Lange, Ethan M and Reiner, Alex P} } @article {1221, title = {Biological, clinical and population relevance of 95 loci for blood lipids.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {466}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Aug 05}, pages = {707-13}, abstract = {

Plasma concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides are among the most important risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) and are targets for therapeutic intervention. We screened the genome for common variants associated with plasma lipids in >100,000 individuals of European ancestry. Here we report 95 significantly associated loci (P < 5 x 10(-8)), with 59 showing genome-wide significant association with lipid traits for the first time. The newly reported associations include single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near known lipid regulators (for example, CYP7A1, NPC1L1 and SCARB1) as well as in scores of loci not previously implicated in lipoprotein metabolism. The 95 loci contribute not only to normal variation in lipid traits but also to extreme lipid phenotypes and have an impact on lipid traits in three non-European populations (East Asians, South Asians and African Americans). Our results identify several novel loci associated with plasma lipids that are also associated with CAD. Finally, we validated three of the novel genes-GALNT2, PPP1R3B and TTC39B-with experiments in mouse models. Taken together, our findings provide the foundation to develop a broader biological understanding of lipoprotein metabolism and to identify new therapeutic opportunities for the prevention of CAD.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Animals, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Liver, Male, Mice, N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Protein Phosphatase 1, Reproducibility of Results, Triglycerides}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature09270}, author = {Teslovich, Tanya M and Musunuru, Kiran and Smith, Albert V and Edmondson, Andrew C and Stylianou, Ioannis M and Koseki, Masahiro and Pirruccello, James P and Ripatti, Samuli and Chasman, Daniel I and Willer, Cristen J and Johansen, Christopher T and Fouchier, Sigrid W and Isaacs, Aaron and Peloso, Gina M and Barbalic, Maja and Ricketts, Sally L and Bis, Joshua C and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Feitosa, Mary F and Chambers, John and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and Johnson, Toby and Li, Xiaohui and Guo, Xiuqing and Li, Mingyao and Shin Cho, Yoon and Jin Go, Min and Jin Kim, Young and Lee, Jong-Young and Park, Taesung and Kim, Kyunga and Sim, Xueling and Twee-Hee Ong, Rick and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Lange, Leslie A and Smith, Joshua D and Song, Kijoung and Hua Zhao, Jing and Yuan, Xin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lamina, Claudia and Ziegler, Andreas and Zhang, Weihua and Zee, Robert Y L and Wright, Alan F and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Wilson, James F and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wichmann, H-Erich and Whitfield, John B and Waterworth, Dawn M and Wareham, Nicholas J and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Vollenweider, Peter and Voight, Benjamin F and Vitart, Veronique and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Uda, Manuela and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Thompson, John R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Surakka, Ida and Stringham, Heather M and Spector, Tim D and Soranzo, Nicole and Smit, Johannes H and Sinisalo, Juha and Silander, Kaisa and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Scuteri, Angelo and Scott, James and Schlessinger, David and Sanna, Serena and Salomaa, Veikko and Saharinen, Juha and Sabatti, Chiara and Ruokonen, Aimo and Rudan, Igor and Rose, Lynda M and Roberts, Robert and Rieder, Mark and Psaty, Bruce M and Pramstaller, Peter P and Pichler, Irene and Perola, Markus and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pattaro, Cristian and Parker, Alex N and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nieminen, Markku S and Nickerson, Deborah A and Montgomery, Grant W and Meitinger, Thomas and McPherson, Ruth and McCarthy, Mark I and McArdle, Wendy and Masson, David and Martin, Nicholas G and Marroni, Fabio and Mangino, Massimo and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Lucas, Gavin and Luben, Robert and Loos, Ruth J F and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lettre, Guillaume and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lakatta, Edward G and Laaksonen, Reijo and Kyvik, Kirsten O and Kronenberg, Florian and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kaplan, Lee M and Johansson, Asa and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Ingelsson, Erik and Igl, Wilmar and Kees Hovingh, G and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Hofman, Albert and Hicks, Andrew A and Hengstenberg, Christian and Heid, Iris M and Hayward, Caroline and Havulinna, Aki S and Hastie, Nicholas D and Harris, Tamara B and Haritunians, Talin and Hall, Alistair S and Gyllensten, Ulf and Guiducci, Candace and Groop, Leif C and Gonzalez, Elena and Gieger, Christian and Freimer, Nelson B and Ferrucci, Luigi and Erdmann, Jeanette and Elliott, Paul and Ejebe, Kenechi G and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Dominiczak, Anna F and Demissie, Serkalem and Deloukas, Panagiotis and de Geus, Eco J C and de Faire, Ulf and Crawford, Gabriel and Collins, Francis S and Chen, Yii-der I and Caulfield, Mark J and Campbell, Harry and Burtt, Noel P and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Boomsma, Dorret I and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Bergman, Richard N and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Bandinelli, Stefania and Ballantyne, Christie M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Quertermous, Thomas and Altshuler, David and Seielstad, Mark and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E-Shyong and Feranil, Alan B and Kuzawa, Christopher W and Adair, Linda S and Taylor, Herman A and Borecki, Ingrid B and Gabriel, Stacey B and Wilson, James G and Holm, Hilma and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Krauss, Ronald M and Mohlke, Karen L and Ordovas, Jose M and Munroe, Patricia B and Kooner, Jaspal S and Tall, Alan R and Hegele, Robert A and Kastelein, John J P and Schadt, Eric E and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and Strachan, David P and Mooser, Vincent and Stefansson, Kari and Reilly, Muredach P and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Ridker, Paul M and Rader, Daniel J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Peltonen, Leena and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {1158, title = {Interaction between fibrinogen and IL-6 genetic variants and associations with cardiovascular disease risk in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Ann Hum Genet}, volume = {74}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jan}, pages = {1-10}, abstract = {

The inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a main regulator of fibrinogen synthesis, though its interaction with fibrinogen genes (FGA, FGB, FGG) and subsequent impact on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk is not well-studied. We investigated joint associations of fibrinogen and IL6 tagSNPs with fibrinogen concentrations, carotid intima-media thickness, and myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke in 3900 European-American Cardiovascular Health Study participants. To identify combinations of genetic main effects and interactions associated with outcomes, we used logic regression. We also evaluated whether the relationship between fibrinogen SNPs and fibrinogen level varied by IL-6 level using linear regression models with multiplicative interaction terms. Combinations of fibrinogen and IL6 SNPs were significantly associated with fibrinogen level (p < 0.005), but not with other outcomes. Fibrinogen levels were higher in individuals having FGB1437 (rs1800790) and lacking FGA6534 (rs6050) minor alleles; these SNPs interacted with IL6 rs1800796 to influence fibrinogen level. Marginally significant (p= 0.03) interactions between IL-6 level and FGA and FGG promoter SNPs associated with fibrinogen levels were detected. We identified potential gene-gene interactions influencing fibrinogen levels. Although IL-6 responsive binding sites are present in fibrinogen gene promoter regions, we did not find strong evidence of interaction between fibrinogen SNPs and IL6 SNPs or levels influencing CVD.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Arteries, Female, Fibrinogen, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Humans, Interleukin-6, Male, Models, Biological, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk, Stroke}, issn = {1469-1809}, doi = {10.1111/j.1469-1809.2009.00551.x}, author = {Carty, Cara L and Heagerty, Patrick and Heckbert, Susan R and Jarvik, Gail P and Lange, Leslie A and Cushman, Mary and Tracy, Russell P and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1562, title = {Association of genomic loci from a cardiovascular gene SNP array with fibrinogen levels in European Americans and African-Americans from six cohort studies: the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe).}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {117}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jan 06}, pages = {268-75}, abstract = {

Several common genomic loci, involving various immunity- and metabolism-related genes, have been associated with plasma fibrinogen in European Americans (EAs). The genetic determinants of fibrinogen in African Americans (AAs) are poorly characterized. Using a vascular gene-centric array in 23,634 EA and 6657 AA participants from 6 studies comprising the Candidate Gene Association Resource project, we examined the association of 47,539 common and lower frequency variants with fibrinogen concentration. We identified a rare Pro265Leu variant in FGB (rs6054) associated with lower fibrinogen. Common fibrinogen gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (FGB rs1800787 and FGG rs2066861) significantly associated with fibrinogen in EAs were prevalent in AAs and showed consistent associations. Several fibrinogen locus single nucleotide polymorphism associated with lower fibrinogen were exclusive to AAs; these include a newly reported association with FGA rs10050257. For IL6R, IL1RN, and NLRP3 inflammatory gene loci, associations with fibrinogen were concordant between EAs and AAs, but not at other loci (CPS1, PCCB, and SCL22A5-IRF1). The association of FGG rs2066861 with fibrinogen differed according to assay type used to measure fibrinogen. Further characterization of common and lower-frequency genetic variants that contribute to interpopulation differences in fibrinogen phenotype may help refine our understanding of the contribution of hemostasis and inflammation to atherothrombotic risk.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Haplotypes, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1528-0020}, doi = {10.1182/blood-2010-06-289546}, author = {Wassel, Christina L and Lange, Leslie A and Keating, Brendan J and Taylor, Kira C and Johnson, Andrew D and Palmer, Cameron and Ho, Lindsey A and Smith, Nicholas L and Lange, Ethan M and Li, Yun and Yang, Qiong and Delaney, Joseph A and Tang, Weihong and Tofler, Geoffrey and Redline, Susan and Taylor, Herman A and Wilson, James G and Tracy, Russell P and Jacobs, David R and Folsom, Aaron R and Green, David and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1288, title = {Enhanced statistical tests for GWAS in admixed populations: assessment using African Americans from CARe and a Breast Cancer Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Apr}, pages = {e1001371}, abstract = {

While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have primarily examined populations of European ancestry, more recent studies often involve additional populations, including admixed populations such as African Americans and Latinos. In admixed populations, linkage disequilibrium (LD) exists both at a fine scale in ancestral populations and at a coarse scale (admixture-LD) due to chromosomal segments of distinct ancestry. Disease association statistics in admixed populations have previously considered SNP association (LD mapping) or admixture association (mapping by admixture-LD), but not both. Here, we introduce a new statistical framework for combining SNP and admixture association in case-control studies, as well as methods for local ancestry-aware imputation. We illustrate the gain in statistical power achieved by these methods by analyzing data of 6,209 unrelated African Americans from the CARe project genotyped on the Affymetrix 6.0 chip, in conjunction with both simulated and real phenotypes, as well as by analyzing the FGFR2 locus using breast cancer GWAS data from 5,761 African-American women. We show that, at typed SNPs, our method yields an 8\% increase in statistical power for finding disease risk loci compared to the power achieved by standard methods in case-control studies. At imputed SNPs, we observe an 11\% increase in statistical power for mapping disease loci when our local ancestry-aware imputation framework and the new scoring statistic are jointly employed. Finally, we show that our method increases statistical power in regions harboring the causal SNP in the case when the causal SNP is untyped and cannot be imputed. Our methods and our publicly available software are broadly applicable to GWAS in admixed populations.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Algorithms, Breast Neoplasms, Chromosome Mapping, Coronary Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genetics, Population, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Odds Ratio, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Principal Component Analysis, Receptor, Fibroblast Growth Factor, Type 2, Software}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1001371}, author = {Pasaniuc, Bogdan and Zaitlen, Noah and Lettre, Guillaume and Chen, Gary K and Tandon, Arti and Kao, W H Linda and Ruczinski, Ingo and Fornage, Myriam and Siscovick, David S and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Larkin, Emma and Lange, Leslie A and Cupples, L Adrienne and Yang, Qiong and Akylbekova, Ermeg L and Musani, Solomon K and Divers, Jasmin and Mychaleckyj, Joe and Li, Mingyao and Papanicolaou, George J and Millikan, Robert C and Ambrosone, Christine B and John, Esther M and Bernstein, Leslie and Zheng, Wei and Hu, Jennifer J and Ziegler, Regina G and Nyante, Sarah J and Bandera, Elisa V and Ingles, Sue A and Press, Michael F and Chanock, Stephen J and Deming, Sandra L and Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L and Palmer, Cameron D and Buxbaum, Sarah and Ekunwe, Lynette and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Henderson, Brian E and Myers, Simon and Haiman, Christopher A and Reich, David and Patterson, Nick and Wilson, James G and Price, Alkes L} } @article {1568, title = {A gene-centric association scan for Coagulation Factor VII levels in European and African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) Consortium.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {20}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 01}, pages = {3525-34}, abstract = {

Polymorphisms in several distinct genomic regions, including the F7 gene, were recently associated with factor VII (FVII) levels in European Americans (EAs). The genetic determinants of FVII in African Americans (AAs) are unknown. We used a 50,000 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) gene-centric array having dense coverage of over 2,000 candidate genes for cardiovascular disease (CVD) pathways in a community-based sample of 16,324 EA and 3898 AA participants from the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) consortium. Our aim was the discovery of new genomic loci and more detailed characterization of existing loci associated with FVII levels. In EAs, we identified three new loci associated with FVII, of which APOA5 on chromosome 11q23 and HNF4A on chromosome 20q12-13 were replicated in a sample of 4289 participants from the Whitehall II study. We confirmed four previously reported FVII-associated loci (GCKR, MS4A6A, F7 and PROCR) in CARe EA samples. In AAs, the F7 and PROCR regions were significantly associated with FVII. Several of the FVII-associated regions are known to be associated with lipids and other cardiovascular-related traits. At the F7 locus, there was evidence of at least five independently associated SNPs in EAs and three independent signals in AAs. Though the variance in FVII explained by the existing loci is substantial (20\% in EA and 10\% in AA), larger sample sizes and investigation of lower frequency variants may be required to identify additional FVII-associated loci in EAs and AAs and further clarify the relationship between FVII and other CVD risk factors.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Factor VII, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddr264}, author = {Taylor, Kira C and Lange, Leslie A and Zabaneh, Delilah and Lange, Ethan and Keating, Brendan J and Tang, Weihong and Smith, Nicholas L and Delaney, Joseph A and Kumari, Meena and Hingorani, Aroon and North, Kari E and Kivimaki, Mika and Tracy, Russell P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Folsom, Aaron R and Green, David and Humphries, Steve E and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1378, title = {Novel loci for adiponectin levels and their influence on type 2 diabetes and metabolic traits: a multi-ethnic meta-analysis of 45,891 individuals.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1002607}, abstract = {

Circulating levels of adiponectin, a hormone produced predominantly by adipocytes, are highly heritable and are inversely associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and other metabolic traits. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in 39,883 individuals of European ancestry to identify genes associated with metabolic disease. We identified 8 novel loci associated with adiponectin levels and confirmed 2 previously reported loci (P = 4.5{\texttimes}10(-8)-1.2{\texttimes}10(-43)). Using a novel method to combine data across ethnicities (N = 4,232 African Americans, N = 1,776 Asians, and N = 29,347 Europeans), we identified two additional novel loci. Expression analyses of 436 human adipocyte samples revealed that mRNA levels of 18 genes at candidate regions were associated with adiponectin concentrations after accounting for multiple testing (p<3{\texttimes}10(-4)). We next developed a multi-SNP genotypic risk score to test the association of adiponectin decreasing risk alleles on metabolic traits and diseases using consortia-level meta-analytic data. This risk score was associated with increased risk of T2D (p = 4.3{\texttimes}10(-3), n = 22,044), increased triglycerides (p = 2.6{\texttimes}10(-14), n = 93,440), increased waist-to-hip ratio (p = 1.8{\texttimes}10(-5), n = 77,167), increased glucose two hours post oral glucose tolerance testing (p = 4.4{\texttimes}10(-3), n = 15,234), increased fasting insulin (p = 0.015, n = 48,238), but with lower in HDL-cholesterol concentrations (p = 4.5{\texttimes}10(-13), n = 96,748) and decreased BMI (p = 1.4{\texttimes}10(-4), n = 121,335). These findings identify novel genetic determinants of adiponectin levels, which, taken together, influence risk of T2D and markers of insulin resistance.

}, keywords = {Adiponectin, African Americans, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Expression, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucose Tolerance Test, Humans, Insulin Resistance, Male, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002607}, author = {Dastani, Zari and Hivert, Marie-France and Timpson, Nicholas and Perry, John R B and Yuan, Xin and Scott, Robert A and Henneman, Peter and Heid, Iris M and Kizer, Jorge R and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Fuchsberger, Christian and Tanaka, Toshiko and Morris, Andrew P and Small, Kerrin and Isaacs, Aaron and Beekman, Marian and Coassin, Stefan and Lohman, Kurt and Qi, Lu and Kanoni, Stavroula and Pankow, James S and Uh, Hae-Won and Wu, Ying and Bidulescu, Aurelian and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Greenwood, Celia M T and Ladouceur, Martin and Grimsby, Jonna and Manning, Alisa K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Kooner, Jaspal and Mooser, Vincent E and Vollenweider, Peter and Kapur, Karen A and Chambers, John and Wareham, Nicholas J and Langenberg, Claudia and Frants, Rune and Willems-Vandijk, Ko and Oostra, Ben A and Willems, Sara M and Lamina, Claudia and Winkler, Thomas W and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Brody, Jennifer and Chen, Ida and Viikari, Jorma and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Pramstaller, Peter P and Evans, David M and St Pourcain, Beate and Sattar, Naveed and Wood, Andrew R and Bandinelli, Stefania and Carlson, Olga D and Egan, Josephine M and B{\"o}hringer, Stefan and van Heemst, Diana and Kedenko, Lyudmyla and Kristiansson, Kati and Nuotio, Marja-Liisa and Loo, Britt-Marie and Harris, Tamara and Garcia, Melissa and Kanaya, Alka and Haun, Margot and Klopp, Norman and Wichmann, H-Erich and Deloukas, Panos and Katsareli, Efi and Couper, David J and Duncan, Bruce B and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Adair, Linda S and Borja, Judith B and Wilson, James G and Musani, Solomon and Guo, Xiuqing and Johnson, Toby and Semple, Robert and Teslovich, Tanya M and Allison, Matthew A and Redline, Susan and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Mohlke, Karen L and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and Ballantyne, Christie M and Dedoussis, George V and Hu, Frank B and Liu, Yongmei and Paulweber, Bernhard and Spector, Timothy D and Slagboom, P Eline and Ferrucci, Luigi and Jula, Antti and Perola, Markus and Raitakari, Olli and Florez, Jose C and Salomaa, Veikko and Eriksson, Johan G and Frayling, Timothy M and Hicks, Andrew A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Smith, George Davey and Siscovick, David S and Kronenberg, Florian and van Duijn, Cornelia and Loos, Ruth J F and Waterworth, Dawn M and Meigs, James B and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Richards, J Brent and Voight, Benjamin F and Scott, Laura J and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Dina, Christian and Welch, Ryan P and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Huth, Cornelia and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and McCulloch, Laura J and Ferreira, Teresa and Grallert, Harald and Amin, Najaf and Wu, Guanming and Willer, Cristen J and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and McCarroll, Steve A and Hofmann, Oliver M and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and van Hoek, Mandy and Navarro, Pau and Ardlie, Kristin and Balkau, Beverley and Benediktsson, Rafn and Bennett, Amanda J and Blagieva, Roza and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bostr{\"o}m, Kristina Bengtsson and Bravenboer, Bert and Bumpstead, Suzannah and Burtt, Noel P and Charpentier, Guillaume and Chines, Peter S and Cornelis, Marilyn and Crawford, Gabe and Doney, Alex S F and Elliott, Katherine S and Elliott, Amanda L and Erdos, Michael R and Fox, Caroline S and Franklin, Christopher S and Ganser, Martha and Gieger, Christian and Grarup, Niels and Green, Todd and Griffin, Simon and Groves, Christopher J and Guiducci, Candace and Hadjadj, Samy and Hassanali, Neelam and Herder, Christian and Isomaa, Bo and Jackson, Anne U and Johnson, Paul R V and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kao, Wen H L and Kong, Augustine and Kraft, Peter and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lauritzen, Torsten and Li, Man and Lieverse, Aloysius and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Marre, Michel and Meitinger, Thomas and Midthjell, Kristian and Morken, Mario A and Narisu, Narisu and Nilsson, Peter and Owen, Katharine R and Payne, Felicity and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Platou, Carl and Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Prokopenko, Inga and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Rayner, N William and Robertson, Neil R and Rocheleau, Ghislain and Roden, Michael and Sampson, Michael J and Saxena, Richa and Shields, Beverley M and Shrader, Peter and Sigurdsson, Gunnar and Spars{\o}, Thomas and Strassburger, Klaus and Stringham, Heather M and Sun, Qi and Swift, Amy J and Thorand, Barbara and Tichet, Jean and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and van Dam, Rob M and van Haeften, Timon W and van Herpt, Thijs and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Walters, G Bragi and Weedon, Michael N and Wijmenga, Cisca and Witteman, Jacqueline and Bergman, Richard N and Cauchi, Stephane and Collins, Francis S and Gloyn, Anna L and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hansen, Torben and Hide, Winston A and Hitman, Graham A and Hofman, Albert and Hunter, David J and Hveem, Kristian and Laakso, Markku and Morris, Andrew D and Palmer, Colin N A and Rudan, Igor and Sijbrands, Eric and Stein, Lincoln D and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andre and Walker, Mark and Watanabe, Richard M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehm, Bernhard O and Campbell, Harry and Daly, Mark J and Hattersley, Andrew T and Pedersen, Oluf and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Groop, Leif and Sladek, Rob and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Wilson, James F and Illig, Thomas and Froguel, Philippe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Altshuler, David and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Soranzo, Nicole and Wheeler, Eleanor and Glazer, Nicole L and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Randall, Joshua and Elliott, Paul and Rybin, Denis and Dehghan, Abbas and Hottenga, Jouke Jan and Song, Kijoung and Goel, Anuj and Lajunen, Taina and Doney, Alex and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Kumari, Meena and Timpson, Nicholas J and Zabena, Carina and Ingelsson, Erik and An, Ping and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Elliott, Amanda and McCarroll, Steven A and Roccasecca, Rosa Maria and Pattou, Fran{\c c}ois and Sethupathy, Praveen and Ariyurek, Yavuz and Barter, Philip and Beilby, John P and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergmann, Sven and Bochud, Murielle and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Borch-Johnsen, Knut and B{\"o}ttcher, Yvonne and Brunner, Eric and Bumpstead, Suzannah J and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chines, Peter and Clarke, Robert and Coin, Lachlan J M and Cooper, Matthew N and Crisponi, Laura and Day, Ian N M and de Geus, Eco J C and Delplanque, Jerome and Fedson, Annette C and Fischer-Rosinsky, Antje and Forouhi, Nita G and Franzosi, Maria Grazia and Galan, Pilar and Goodarzi, Mark O and Graessler, J{\"u}rgen and Grundy, Scott and Gwilliam, Rhian and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hammond, Naomi and Han, Xijing and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Simon C and Hercberg, Serge and Hillman, David R and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hui, Jennie and Hung, Joe and Kaakinen, Marika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kesaniemi, Y Antero and Kivimaki, Mika and Knight, Beatrice and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kyvik, Kirsten Ohm and Lathrop, G Mark and Lawlor, Debbie A and Le Bacquer, Olivier and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Li, Yun and Mahley, Robert and Mangino, Massimo and Mart{\'\i}nez-Larrad, Mar{\'\i}a Teresa and McAteer, Jarred B and McPherson, Ruth and Meisinger, Christa and Melzer, David and Meyre, David and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Naitza, Silvia and Neville, Matthew J and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Pakyz, Ruth and Paolisso, Giuseppe and Pattaro, Cristian and Pearson, Daniel and Peden, John F and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pfeiffer, Andreas F H and Pichler, Irene and Polasek, Ozren and Posthuma, Danielle and Potter, Simon C and Pouta, Anneli and Province, Michael A and Rayner, Nigel W and Rice, Kenneth and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rolandsson, Olov and Sandbaek, Annelli and Sandhu, Manjinder and Sanna, Serena and Sayer, Avan Aihie and Scheet, Paul and Seedorf, Udo and Sharp, Stephen J and Shields, Beverley and Sigur{\dh}sson, Gunnar and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Silveira, Angela and Simpson, Laila and Singleton, Andrew and Smith, Nicholas L and Sovio, Ulla and Swift, Amy and Syddall, Holly and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Varma, Dhiraj and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Vogelzangs, Nicole and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wagner, Peter J and Walley, Andrew and Ward, Kim L and Watkins, Hugh and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witteman, Jaqueline C M and Yarnell, John W G and Zelenika, Diana and Zethelius, Bj{\"o}rn and Zhai, Guangju and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zillikens, M Carola and Borecki, Ingrid B and Meneton, Pierre and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Nathan, David M and Williams, Gordon H and Silander, Kaisa and Bornstein, Stefan R and Schwarz, Peter and Spranger, Joachim and Karpe, Fredrik and Shuldiner, Alan R and Cooper, Cyrus and Serrano-R{\'\i}os, Manuel and Lind, Lars and Palmer, Lyle J and Hu, Frank B and Franks, Paul W and Ebrahim, Shah and Marmot, Michael and Kao, W H Linda and Pramstaller, Peter Paul and Wright, Alan F and Stumvoll, Michael and Hamsten, Anders and Buchanan, Thomas A and Valle, Timo T and Rotter, Jerome I and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Boomsma, Dorret I and Cao, Antonio and Scuteri, Angelo and Schlessinger, David and Uda, Manuela and Ruokonen, Aimo and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Peltonen, Leena and Mooser, Vincent and Sladek, Robert and Musunuru, Kiran and Smith, Albert V and Edmondson, Andrew C and Stylianou, Ioannis M and Koseki, Masahiro and Pirruccello, James P and Chasman, Daniel I and Johansen, Christopher T and Fouchier, Sigrid W and Peloso, Gina M and Barbalic, Maja and Ricketts, Sally L and Bis, Joshua C and Feitosa, Mary F and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and Li, Xiaohui and Li, Mingyao and Cho, Yoon Shin and Go, Min Jin and Kim, Young Jin and Lee, Jong-Young and Park, Taesung and Kim, Kyunga and Sim, Xueling and Ong, Rick Twee-Hee and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Lange, Leslie A and Smith, Joshua D and Ziegler, Andreas and Zhang, Weihua and Zee, Robert Y L and Whitfield, John B and Thompson, John R and Surakka, Ida and Spector, Tim D and Smit, Johannes H and Sinisalo, Juha and Scott, James and Saharinen, Juha and Sabatti, Chiara and Rose, Lynda M and Roberts, Robert and Rieder, Mark and Parker, Alex N and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nieminen, Markku S and Nickerson, Deborah A and Montgomery, Grant W and McArdle, Wendy and Masson, David and Martin, Nicholas G and Marroni, Fabio and Lucas, Gavin and Luben, Robert and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lettre, Guillaume and Launer, Lenore J and Lakatta, Edward G and Laaksonen, Reijo and Kyvik, Kirsten O and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kaplan, Lee M and Johansson, Asa and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Igl, Wilmar and Hovingh, G Kees and Hengstenberg, Christian and Havulinna, Aki S and Hastie, Nicholas D and Harris, Tamara B and Haritunians, Talin and Hall, Alistair S and Groop, Leif C and Gonzalez, Elena and Freimer, Nelson B and Erdmann, Jeanette and Ejebe, Kenechi G and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Dominiczak, Anna F and Demissie, Serkalem and Deloukas, Panagiotis and de Faire, Ulf and Crawford, Gabriel and Chen, Yii-der I and Caulfield, Mark J and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Assimes, Themistocles L and Quertermous, Thomas and Seielstad, Mark and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E-Shyong and Feranil, Alan B and Kuzawa, Christopher W and Taylor, Herman A and Gabriel, Stacey B and Holm, Hilma and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Krauss, Ronald M and Ordovas, Jose M and Munroe, Patricia B and Kooner, Jaspal S and Tall, Alan R and Hegele, Robert A and Kastelein, John J P and Schadt, Eric E and Strachan, David P and Reilly, Muredach P and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Ridker, Paul M and Rader, Daniel J and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {1544, title = {Ultraconserved elements in the human genome: association and transmission analyses of highly constrained single-nucleotide polymorphisms.}, journal = {Genetics}, volume = {192}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Sep}, pages = {253-66}, abstract = {

Ultraconserved elements in the human genome likely harbor important biological functions as they are dosage sensitive and are able to direct tissue-specific expression. Because they are under purifying selection, variants in these elements may have a lower frequency in the population but a higher likelihood of association with complex traits. We tested a set of highly constrained SNPs (hcSNPs) distributed genome-wide among ultraconserved and nearly ultraconserved elements for association with seven traits related to reproductive (age at natural menopause, number of children, age at first child, and age at last child) and overall [longevity, body mass index (BMI), and height] fitness. Using up to 24,047 European-American samples from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe), we observed an excess of associations with BMI and height. In an independent replication panel the most strongly associated SNPs showed an 8.4-fold enrichment of associations at the nominal level, including three variants in previously identified loci and one in a locus (DENND1A) previously shown to be associated with polycystic ovary syndrome. Finally, using 1430 family trios, we showed that the transmissions from heterozygous parents to offspring of the derived alleles of rare (frequency <= 0.5\%) hcSNPs are not biased, particularly after adjusting for the rates of genotype missingness and error in the data. The lack of transmission bias ruled out an immediately and strongly deleterious effect due to the rare derived alleles, consistent with the observation that mice homozygous for the deletion of ultraconserved elements showed no overt phenotype. Our study also illustrated the importance of carefully modeling potential technical confounders when analyzing genotype data of rare variants.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Animals, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Child, Conserved Sequence, Dogs, Evolution, Molecular, Female, Genetic Fitness, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genotype, Humans, Inheritance Patterns, Male, Mice, Pedigree, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Rats, Reproduction, Young Adult}, issn = {1943-2631}, doi = {10.1534/genetics.112.141945}, author = {Chiang, Charleston W K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Lettre, Guillaume and Lange, Leslie A and Jorgensen, Neal W and Keating, Brendan J and Vedantam, Sailaja and Nock, Nora L and Franceschini, Nora and Reiner, Alex P and Demerath, Ellen W and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and North, Kari E and Papanicolaou, George J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Murabito, Joanne M and Hirschhorn, Joel N} } @article {6282, title = {Genome-wide and gene-centric analyses of circulating myeloperoxidase levels in the charge and care consortia.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {22}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Aug 15}, pages = {3381-93}, abstract = {

Increased systemic levels of myeloperoxidase (MPO) are associated with the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). To identify the genetic factors that are associated with circulating MPO levels, we carried out a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and a gene-centric analysis in subjects of European ancestry and African Americans (AAs). A locus on chromosome 1q31.1 containing the complement factor H (CFH) gene was strongly associated with serum MPO levels in 9305 subjects of European ancestry (lead SNP rs800292; P = 4.89 {\texttimes} 10(-41)) and in 1690 AA subjects (rs505102; P = 1.05 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Gene-centric analyses in 8335 subjects of European ancestry additionally identified two rare MPO coding sequence variants that were associated with serum MPO levels (rs28730837, P = 5.21 {\texttimes} 10(-12); rs35897051, P = 3.32 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). A GWAS for plasma MPO levels in 9260 European ancestry subjects identified a chromosome 17q22 region near MPO that was significantly associated (lead SNP rs6503905; P = 2.94 {\texttimes} 10(-12)), but the CFH locus did not exhibit evidence of association with plasma MPO levels. Functional analyses revealed that rs800292 was associated with levels of complement proteins in serum. Variants at chromosome 17q22 also had pleiotropic cis effects on gene expression. In a case-control analysis of \~{}80 000 subjects from CARDIoGRAM, none of the identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were associated with CAD. These results suggest that distinct genetic factors regulate serum and plasma MPO levels, which may have relevance for various acute and chronic inflammatory disorders. The clinical implications for CAD and a better understanding of the functional basis for the association of CFH and MPO variants with circulating MPO levels require further study.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Case-Control Studies, Complement Factor H, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Peroxidase, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Young Adult}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddt189}, author = {Reiner, Alexander P and Hartiala, Jaana and Zeller, Tanja and Bis, Joshua C and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Fornage, Myriam and Baumert, Jens and Kleber, Marcus E and Wild, Philipp S and Baldus, Stephan and Bielinski, Suzette J and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o D and Illig, Thomas and Keating, Brendan J and Lange, Leslie A and Ojeda, Francisco and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Munzel, Thomas F and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Rotter, Jerome I and Schnabel, Renate B and Tang, W H Wilson and Thorand, Barbara and Erdmann, Jeanette and Jacobs, David R and Wilson, James G and Koenig, Wolfgang and Tracy, Russell P and Blankenberg, Stefan and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Gross, Myron D and Benjamin, Emelia J and Hazen, Stanley L and Allayee, Hooman} } @article {1564, title = {Soluble CD14: genomewide association analysis and relationship to cardiovascular risk and mortality in older adults.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {33}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan}, pages = {158-64}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: CD14 is a glycosylphosphotidylinositol-anchored membrane glycoprotein expressed on neutrophils and monocytes/macrophages that also circulates as a soluble form (sCD14). Despite the well-recognized role of CD14 in inflammation, relatively little is known about the genetic determinants of sCD14 or the relationship of sCD14 to vascular- and aging-related phenotypes.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We measured baseline levels of sCD14 in >5000 European-American and black adults aged 65 years and older from the Cardiovascular Health Study, who were well characterized at baseline for atherosclerotic risk factors and subclinical cardiovascular disease, and who have been followed for clinical cardiovascular disease and mortality outcomes up to 20 years. At baseline, sCD14 generally showed strong positive correlations with traditional cardio-metabolic risk factors and with subclinical measures of vascular disease such as carotid wall thickness and ankle-brachial index (independently of traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors), and was also inversely correlated with body mass index. In genomewide association analyses of sCD14, we (1) confirmed the importance of the CD14 locus on chromosome 5q21 in European-American; (2) identified a novel African ancestry-specific allele of CD14 associated with lower sCD14 in blacks; and (3) identified a putative novel association in European-American of a nonsynonymous variant of PIGC, which encodes an enzyme required for the first step in glycosylphosphotidylinositol anchor biosynthesis. Finally, we show that, like other acute phase inflammatory biomarkers, sCD14 predicts incident cardiovascular disease, and strongly and independently predicts all-cause mortality in older adults.

CONCLUSIONS: CD14 independently predicts risk mortality in older adults.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Aged, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Haplotypes, Hexosyltransferases, Humans, Incidence, Inflammation Mediators, Linear Models, Lipopolysaccharide Receptors, Logistic Models, Male, Membrane Proteins, Multivariate Analysis, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Principal Component Analysis, Prognosis, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/ATVBAHA.112.300421}, author = {Reiner, Alex P and Lange, Ethan M and Jenny, Nancy S and Chaves, Paulo H M and Ellis, Jaclyn and Li, Jin and Walston, Jeremy and Lange, Leslie A and Cushman, Mary and Tracy, Russell P} } @article {6569, title = {Association between alcohol and cardiovascular disease: Mendelian randomisation analysis based on individual participant data.}, journal = {BMJ}, volume = {349}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 10}, pages = {g4164}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To use the rs1229984 variant in the alcohol dehydrogenase 1B gene (ADH1B) as an instrument to investigate the causal role of alcohol in cardiovascular disease.

DESIGN: Mendelian randomisation meta-analysis of 56 epidemiological studies.

PARTICIPANTS: 261 991 individuals of European descent, including 20 259 coronary heart disease cases and 10 164 stroke events. Data were available on ADH1B rs1229984 variant, alcohol phenotypes, and cardiovascular biomarkers.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Odds ratio for coronary heart disease and stroke associated with the ADH1B variant in all individuals and by categories of alcohol consumption.

RESULTS: Carriers of the A-allele of ADH1B rs1229984 consumed 17.2\% fewer units of alcohol per week (95\% confidence interval 15.6\% to 18.9\%), had a lower prevalence of binge drinking (odds ratio 0.78 (95\% CI 0.73 to 0.84)), and had higher abstention (odds ratio 1.27 (1.21 to 1.34)) than non-carriers. Rs1229984 A-allele carriers had lower systolic blood pressure (-0.88 (-1.19 to -0.56) mm Hg), interleukin-6 levels (-5.2\% (-7.8 to -2.4\%)), waist circumference (-0.3 (-0.6 to -0.1) cm), and body mass index (-0.17 (-0.24 to -0.10) kg/m(2)). Rs1229984 A-allele carriers had lower odds of coronary heart disease (odds ratio 0.90 (0.84 to 0.96)). The protective association of the ADH1B rs1229984 A-allele variant remained the same across all categories of alcohol consumption (P=0.83 for heterogeneity). Although no association of rs1229984 was identified with the combined subtypes of stroke, carriers of the A-allele had lower odds of ischaemic stroke (odds ratio 0.83 (0.72 to 0.95)).

CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with a genetic variant associated with non-drinking and lower alcohol consumption had a more favourable cardiovascular profile and a reduced risk of coronary heart disease than those without the genetic variant. This suggests that reduction of alcohol consumption, even for light to moderate drinkers, is beneficial for cardiovascular health.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Alcohol Dehydrogenase, Alcohol Drinking, Biomarkers, Coronary Disease, Female, Genetic Markers, Genotype, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Models, Statistical, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stroke}, issn = {1756-1833}, doi = {10.1136/bmj.g4164}, author = {Holmes, Michael V and Dale, Caroline E and Zuccolo, Luisa and Silverwood, Richard J and Guo, Yiran and Ye, Zheng and Prieto-Merino, David and Dehghan, Abbas and Trompet, Stella and Wong, Andrew and Cavadino, Alana and Drogan, Dagmar and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Li, Shanshan and Yesupriya, Ajay and Leusink, Maarten and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Hubacek, Jaroslav A and Pikhart, Hynek and Swerdlow, Daniel I and Panayiotou, Andrie G and Borinskaya, Svetlana A and Finan, Chris and Shah, Sonia and Kuchenbaecker, Karoline B and Shah, Tina and Engmann, Jorgen and Folkersen, Lasse and Eriksson, Per and Ricceri, Fulvio and Melander, Olle and Sacerdote, Carlotta and Gamble, Dale M and Rayaprolu, Sruti and Ross, Owen A and McLachlan, Stela and Vikhireva, Olga and Sluijs, Ivonne and Scott, Robert A and Adamkova, Vera and Flicker, Leon and Bockxmeer, Frank M van and Power, Christine and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Meade, Tom and Marmot, Michael G and Ferro, Jose M and Paulos-Pinheiro, Sofia and Humphries, Steve E and Talmud, Philippa J and Mateo Leach, Irene and Verweij, Niek and Linneberg, Allan and Skaaby, Tea and Doevendans, Pieter A and Cramer, Maarten J and van der Harst, Pim and Klungel, Olaf H and Dowling, Nicole F and Dominiczak, Anna F and Kumari, Meena and Nicolaides, Andrew N and Weikert, Cornelia and Boeing, Heiner and Ebrahim, Shah and Gaunt, Tom R and Price, Jackie F and Lannfelt, Lars and Peasey, Anne and Kubinova, Ruzena and Pajak, Andrzej and Malyutina, Sofia and Voevoda, Mikhail I and Tamosiunas, Abdonas and Maitland-van der Zee, Anke H and Norman, Paul E and Hankey, Graeme J and Bergmann, Manuela M and Hofman, Albert and Franco, Oscar H and Cooper, Jackie and Palmen, Jutta and Spiering, Wilko and de Jong, Pim A and Kuh, Diana and Hardy, Rebecca and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ikram, M Arfan and Ford, Ian and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Almeida, Osvaldo P and Wareham, Nicholas J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Hamsten, Anders and Husemoen, Lise Lotte N and Tj{\o}nneland, Anne and Tolstrup, Janne S and Rimm, Eric and Beulens, Joline W J and Verschuren, W M Monique and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Hofker, Marten H and Wannamethee, S Goya and Whincup, Peter H and Morris, Richard and Vicente, Astrid M and Watkins, Hugh and Farrall, Martin and Jukema, J Wouter and Meschia, James and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sharp, Stephen J and Fornage, Myriam and Kooperberg, Charles and LaCroix, Andrea Z and Dai, James Y and Lanktree, Matthew B and Siscovick, David S and Jorgenson, Eric and Spring, Bonnie and Coresh, Josef and Li, Yun R and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Schreiner, Pamela J and Ellison, R Curtis and Tsai, Michael Y and Patel, Sanjay R and Redline, Susan and Johnson, Andrew D and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Hakonarson, Hakon and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and de Bakker, Paul I W and Kivimaki, Mika and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Sattar, Naveed and Lawlor, Debbie A and Whittaker, John and Davey Smith, George and Mukamal, Kenneth and Psaty, Bruce M and Wilson, James G and Lange, Leslie A and Hamidovic, Ajna and Hingorani, Aroon D and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Bobak, Martin and Leon, David A and Langenberg, Claudia and Palmer, Tom M and Reiner, Alex P and Keating, Brendan J and Dudbridge, Frank and Casas, Juan P} } @article {6590, title = {Association of low-frequency and rare coding-sequence variants with blood lipids and coronary heart disease in 56,000 whites and blacks.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {94}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb 06}, pages = {223-32}, abstract = {

Low-frequency coding DNA sequence variants in the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 gene (PCSK9) lower plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), protect against risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), and have prompted the development of a new class of therapeutics. It is uncertain whether the PCSK9 example represents a paradigm or an isolated exception. We used the "Exome Array" to genotype >200,000 low-frequency and rare coding sequence variants across the genome in 56,538 individuals (42,208 European ancestry [EA] and 14,330 African ancestry [AA]) and tested these variants for association with LDL-C, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides. Although we did not identify new genes associated with LDL-C, we did identify four low-frequency (frequencies between 0.1\% and 2\%) variants (ANGPTL8 rs145464906 [c.361C>T; p.Gln121*], PAFAH1B2 rs186808413 [c.482C>T; p.Ser161Leu], COL18A1 rs114139997 [c.331G>A; p.Gly111Arg], and PCSK7 rs142953140 [c.1511G>A; p.Arg504His]) with large effects on HDL-C and/or triglycerides. None of these four variants was associated with risk for CHD, suggesting that examples of low-frequency coding variants with robust effects on both lipids and CHD will be limited.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Alleles, Animals, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Code, Genetic Variation, Humans, Linear Models, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Subtilisins, Triglycerides}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.01.009}, author = {Peloso, Gina M and Auer, Paul L and Bis, Joshua C and Voorman, Arend and Morrison, Alanna C and Stitziel, Nathan O and Brody, Jennifer A and Khetarpal, Sumeet A and Crosby, Jacy R and Fornage, Myriam and Isaacs, Aaron and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Feitosa, Mary F and Davies, Gail and Huffman, Jennifer E and Manichaikul, Ani and Davis, Brian and Lohman, Kurt and Joon, Aron Y and Smith, Albert V and Grove, Megan L and Zanoni, Paolo and Redon, Valeska and Demissie, Serkalem and Lawson, Kim and Peters, Ulrike and Carlson, Christopher and Jackson, Rebecca D and Ryckman, Kelli K and Mackey, Rachel H and Robinson, Jennifer G and Siscovick, David S and Schreiner, Pamela J and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Pankow, James S and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Harris, Tamara B and Taylor, Kent D and Stafford, Jeanette M and Reynolds, Lindsay M and Marioni, Riccardo E and Dehghan, Abbas and Franco, Oscar H and Patel, Aniruddh P and Lu, Yingchang and Hindy, George and Gottesman, Omri and Bottinger, Erwin P and Melander, Olle and Orho-Melander, Marju and Loos, Ruth J F and Duga, Stefano and Merlini, Piera Angelica and Farrall, Martin and Goel, Anuj and Asselta, Rosanna and Girelli, Domenico and Martinelli, Nicola and Shah, Svati H and Kraus, William E and Li, Mingyao and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and McPherson, Ruth and Watkins, Hugh and Ardissino, Diego and Zhang, Qunyuan and Wang, Judy and Tsai, Michael Y and Taylor, Herman A and Correa, Adolfo and Griswold, Michael E and Lange, Leslie A and Starr, John M and Rudan, Igor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Lenore J and Ordovas, Jose M and Levy, Daniel and Chen, Y-D Ida and Reiner, Alexander P and Hayward, Caroline and Polasek, Ozren and Deary, Ian J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Liu, Yongmei and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Wilson, James G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Kooperberg, Charles and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Rice, Kenneth and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kathiresan, Sekar and Cupples, L Adrienne} } @article {6368, title = {Gene-centric meta-analyses for central adiposity traits in up to 57 412 individuals of European descent confirm known loci and reveal several novel associations.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 May 01}, pages = {2498-510}, abstract = {

Waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) are surrogate measures of central adiposity that are associated with adverse cardiovascular events, type 2 diabetes and cancer independent of body mass index (BMI). WC and WHR are highly heritable with multiple susceptibility loci identified to date. We assessed the association between SNPs and BMI-adjusted WC and WHR and unadjusted WC in up to 57 412 individuals of European descent from 22 cohorts collaborating with the NHLBI{\textquoteright}s Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) project. The study population consisted of women and men aged 20-80 years. Study participants were genotyped using the ITMAT/Broad/CARE array, which includes \~{}50 000 cosmopolitan tagged SNPs across \~{}2100 cardiovascular-related genes. Each trait was modeled as a function of age, study site and principal components to control for population stratification, and we conducted a fixed-effects meta-analysis. No new loci for WC were observed. For WHR analyses, three novel loci were significantly associated (P < 2.4 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). Previously unreported rs2811337-G near TMCC1 was associated with increased WHR (β {\textpm} SE, 0.048 {\textpm} 0.008, P = 7.7 {\texttimes} 10(-9)) as was rs7302703-G in HOXC10 (β = 0.044 {\textpm} 0.008, P = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) and rs936108-C in PEMT (β = 0.035 {\textpm} 0.007, P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). Sex-stratified analyses revealed two additional novel signals among females only, rs12076073-A in SHC1 (β = 0.10 {\textpm} 0.02, P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) and rs1037575-A in ATBDB4 (β = 0.046 {\textpm} 0.01, P = 2.2 {\texttimes} 10(-6)), supporting an already established sexual dimorphism of central adiposity-related genetic variants. Functional analysis using ENCODE and eQTL databases revealed that several of these loci are in regulatory regions or regions with differential expression in adipose tissue.

}, keywords = {Adiposity, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Waist Circumference, Waist-Hip Ratio, Young Adult}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddt626}, author = {Yoneyama, Sachiko and Guo, Yiran and Lanktree, Matthew B and Barnes, Michael R and Elbers, Clara C and Karczewski, Konrad J and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Bauer, Florianne and Baumert, Jens and Beitelshees, Amber and Berenson, Gerald S and Boer, Jolanda M A and Burke, Gregory and Cade, Brian and Chen, Wei and Cooper-Dehoff, Rhonda M and Gaunt, Tom R and Gieger, Christian and Gong, Yan and Gorski, Mathias and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Johnson, Toby and Lamonte, Michael J and McDonough, Caitrin and Monda, Keri L and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Nelson, Christopher P and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Ordovas, Jose and Peter, Inga and Peters, Annette and Shaffer, Jonathan and Shen, Haiqinq and Smith, Erin and Speilotes, Liz and Thomas, Fridtjof and Thorand, Barbara and Monique Verschuren, W M and Anand, Sonia S and Dominiczak, Anna and Davidson, Karina W and Hegele, Robert A and Heid, Iris and Hofker, Marten H and Huggins, Gordon S and Illig, Thomas and Johnson, Julie A and Kirkland, Susan and K{\"o}nig, Wolfgang and Langaee, Taimour Y and McCaffery, Jeanne and Melander, Olle and Mitchell, Braxton D and Munroe, Patricia and Murray, Sarah S and Papanicolaou, George and Redline, Susan and Reilly, Muredach and Samani, Nilesh J and Schork, Nicholas J and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Shimbo, Daichi and Shuldiner, Alan R and Tobin, Martin D and Wijmenga, Cisca and Yusuf, Salim and Hakonarson, Hakon and Lange, Leslie A and Demerath, Ellen W and Fox, Caroline S and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alex P and Keating, Brendan and Taylor, Kira C} } @article {6583, title = {Sequencing of SCN5A identifies rare and common variants associated with cardiac conduction: Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {365-73}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The cardiac sodium channel SCN5A regulates atrioventricular and ventricular conduction. Genetic variants in this gene are associated with PR and QRS intervals. We sought to characterize further the contribution of rare and common coding variation in SCN5A to cardiac conduction.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study, we performed targeted exonic sequencing of SCN5A (n=3699, European ancestry individuals) and identified 4 common (minor allele frequency >1\%) and 157 rare variants. Common and rare SCN5A coding variants were examined for association with PR and QRS intervals through meta-analysis of European ancestry participants from CHARGE, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Exome Sequencing Project (n=607), and the UK10K (n=1275) and by examining Exome Sequencing Project African ancestry participants (n=972). Rare coding SCN5A variants in aggregate were associated with PR interval in European and African ancestry participants (P=1.3{\texttimes}10(-3)). Three common variants were associated with PR and QRS interval duration among European ancestry participants and one among African ancestry participants. These included 2 well-known missense variants: rs1805124 (H558R) was associated with PR and QRS shortening in European ancestry participants (P=6.25{\texttimes}10(-4) and P=5.2{\texttimes}10(-3), respectively) and rs7626962 (S1102Y) was associated with PR shortening in those of African ancestry (P=2.82{\texttimes}10(-3)). Among European ancestry participants, 2 novel synonymous variants, rs1805126 and rs6599230, were associated with cardiac conduction. Our top signal, rs1805126 was associated with PR and QRS lengthening (P=3.35{\texttimes}10(-7) and P=2.69{\texttimes}10(-4), respectively) and rs6599230 was associated with PR shortening (P=2.67{\texttimes}10(-5)).

CONCLUSIONS: By sequencing SCN5A, we identified novel common and rare coding variants associated with cardiac conduction.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Conduction System, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, NAV1.5 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000098}, author = {Magnani, Jared W and Brody, Jennifer A and Prins, Bram P and Arking, Dan E and Lin, Honghuang and Yin, Xiaoyan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Morrison, Alanna C and Zhang, Feng and Spector, Tim D and Alonso, Alvaro and Bis, Joshua C and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Sitlani, Colleen M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Lubitz, Steven A and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Pulit, Sara L and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ellinor, Patrick T and Benjamin, Emelia J and Muzny, Donna M and Gibbs, Richard A and Santibanez, Jireh and Taylor, Herman A and Rotter, Jerome I and Lange, Leslie A and Psaty, Bruce M and Jackson, Rebecca and Rich, Stephen S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Jamshidi, Yalda and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {6577, title = {Whole-exome sequencing identifies rare and low-frequency coding variants associated with LDL cholesterol.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {94}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb 06}, pages = {233-45}, abstract = {

Elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a treatable, heritable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified 157 variants associated with lipid levels but are not well suited to assess the impact of rare and low-frequency variants. To determine whether rare or low-frequency coding variants are associated with LDL-C, we exome sequenced 2,005 individuals, including 554 individuals selected for extreme LDL-C (>98(th) or <2(nd) percentile). Follow-up analyses included sequencing of 1,302 additional individuals and genotype-based analysis of 52,221 individuals. We observed significant evidence of association between LDL-C and the burden of rare or low-frequency variants in PNPLA5, encoding a phospholipase-domain-containing protein, and both known and previously unidentified variants in PCSK9, LDLR and APOB, three known lipid-related genes. The effect sizes for the burden of rare variants for each associated gene were substantially higher than those observed for individual SNPs identified from GWASs. We replicated the PNPLA5 signal in an independent large-scale sequencing study of 2,084 individuals. In conclusion, this large whole-exome-sequencing study for LDL-C identified a gene not known to be implicated in LDL-C and provides unique insight into the design and analysis of similar experiments.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Apolipoproteins E, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Dyslipidemias, Exome, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Gene Frequency, Genetic Code, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Lipase, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proprotein Convertase 9, Proprotein Convertases, Receptors, LDL, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Serine Endopeptidases}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.01.010}, author = {Lange, Leslie A and Hu, Youna and Zhang, He and Xue, Chenyi and Schmidt, Ellen M and Tang, Zheng-Zheng and Bizon, Chris and Lange, Ethan M and Smith, Joshua D and Turner, Emily H and Jun, Goo and Kang, Hyun Min and Peloso, Gina and Auer, Paul and Li, Kuo-Ping and Flannick, Jason and Zhang, Ji and Fuchsberger, Christian and Gaulton, Kyle and Lindgren, Cecilia and Locke, Adam and Manning, Alisa and Sim, Xueling and Rivas, Manuel A and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Gottesman, Omri and Lu, Yingchang and Ruderfer, Douglas and Stahl, Eli A and Duan, Qing and Li, Yun and Durda, Peter and Jiao, Shuo and Isaacs, Aaron and Hofman, Albert and Bis, Joshua C and Correa, Adolfo and Griswold, Michael E and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Smith, Albert V and Schreiner, Pamela J and Feitosa, Mary F and Zhang, Qunyuan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Crosby, Jacy and Wassel, Christina L and Do, Ron and Franceschini, Nora and Martin, Lisa W and Robinson, Jennifer G and Assimes, Themistocles L and Crosslin, David R and Rosenthal, Elisabeth A and Tsai, Michael and Rieder, Mark J and Farlow, Deborah N and Folsom, Aaron R and Lumley, Thomas and Fox, Ervin R and Carlson, Christopher S and Peters, Ulrike and Jackson, Rebecca D and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Levy, Daniel and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Herman A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Siscovick, David S and Fornage, Myriam and Borecki, Ingrid B and Hayward, Caroline and Rudan, Igor and Chen, Y Eugene and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and S{\ae}trom, P{\r a}l and Hveem, Kristian and Boehnke, Michael and Groop, Leif and McCarthy, Mark and Meitinger, Thomas and Ballantyne, Christie M and Gabriel, Stacey B and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Post, Wendy S and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alexander P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Altshuler, David and Kathiresan, Sekar and Lin, Dan-Yu and Jarvik, Gail P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Kooperberg, Charles and Wilson, James G and Nickerson, Deborah A and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Willer, Cristen J} } @article {6597, title = {Association of exome sequences with plasma C-reactive protein levels in >9000 participants.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {24}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan 15}, pages = {559-71}, abstract = {

C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration is a heritable systemic marker of inflammation that is associated with cardiovascular disease risk. Genome-wide association studies have identified CRP-associated common variants associated in \~{}25 genes. Our aims were to apply exome sequencing to (1) assess whether the candidate loci contain rare coding variants associated with CRP levels and (2) perform an exome-wide search for rare variants in novel genes associated with CRP levels. We exome-sequenced 6050 European-Americans (EAs) and 3109 African-Americans (AAs) from the NHLBI-ESP and the CHARGE consortia, and performed association tests of sequence data with measured CRP levels. In single-variant tests across candidate loci, a novel rare (minor allele frequency = 0.16\%) CRP-coding variant (rs77832441-A; p.Thr59Met) was associated with 53\% lower mean CRP levels (P = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). We replicated the association of rs77832441 in an exome array analysis of 11 414 EAs (P = 3.0 {\texttimes} 10(-15)). Despite a strong effect on CRP levels, rs77832441 was not associated with inflammation-related phenotypes including coronary heart disease. We also found evidence for an AA-specific association of APOE-ε2 rs7214 with higher CRP levels. At the exome-wide significance level (P < 5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), we confirmed associations for reported common variants of HNF1A, CRP, IL6R and TOMM40-APOE. In gene-based tests, a burden of rare/lower frequency variation in CRP in EAs (P <= 6.8 {\texttimes} 10(-4)) and in retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor α (RORA) in AAs (P = 1.7 {\texttimes} 10(-3)) were associated with CRP levels at the candidate gene level (P < 2.0 {\texttimes} 10(-3)). This inquiry did not elucidate novel genes, but instead demonstrated that variants distributed across the allele frequency spectrum within candidate genes contribute to CRP levels.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 1-alpha, Humans, Male, Plasma, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Interleukin-6, Risk Factors}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu450}, author = {Schick, Ursula M and Auer, Paul L and Bis, Joshua C and Lin, Honghuang and Wei, Peng and Pankratz, Nathan and Lange, Leslie A and Brody, Jennifer and Stitziel, Nathan O and Kim, Daniel S and Carlson, Christopher S and Fornage, Myriam and Haessler, Jeffery and Hsu, Li and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Leal, Suzanne M and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tracy, Russell and Ardissino, Diego and Shah, Svati and Willer, Cristen and Loos, Ruth and Melander, Olle and McPherson, Ruth and Hovingh, Kees and Reilly, Muredach and Watkins, Hugh and Girelli, Domenico and Fontanillas, Pierre and Chasman, Daniel I and Gabriel, Stacey B and Gibbs, Richard and Nickerson, Deborah A and Kathiresan, Sekar and Peters, Ulrike and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and Morrison, Alanna C and Benjamin, Emelia J and Gross, Myron D and Reiner, Alex P} } @article {6875, title = {Drug-Gene Interactions of Antihypertensive Medications and Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease: A Pharmacogenomics Study from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {e0140496}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a major risk factor for a spectrum of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including myocardial infarction, sudden death, and stroke. In the US, over 65 million people have high blood pressure and a large proportion of these individuals are prescribed antihypertensive medications. Although large long-term clinical trials conducted in the last several decades have identified a number of effective antihypertensive treatments that reduce the risk of future clinical complications, responses to therapy and protection from cardiovascular events vary among individuals.

METHODS: Using a genome-wide association study among 21,267 participants with pharmaceutically treated hypertension, we explored the hypothesis that genetic variants might influence or modify the effectiveness of common antihypertensive therapies on the risk of major cardiovascular outcomes. The classes of drug treatments included angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, and diuretics. In the setting of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, each study performed array-based genome-wide genotyping, imputed to HapMap Phase II reference panels, and used additive genetic models in proportional hazards or logistic regression models to evaluate drug-gene interactions for each of four therapeutic drug classes. We used meta-analysis to combine study-specific interaction estimates for approximately 2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a discovery analysis among 15,375 European Ancestry participants (3,527 CVD cases) with targeted follow-up in a case-only study of 1,751 European Ancestry GenHAT participants as well as among 4,141 African-Americans (1,267 CVD cases).

RESULTS: Although drug-SNP interactions were biologically plausible, exposures and outcomes were well measured, and power was sufficient to detect modest interactions, we did not identify any statistically significant interactions from the four antihypertensive therapy meta-analyses (Pinteraction > 5.0{\texttimes}10-8). Similarly, findings were null for meta-analyses restricted to 66 SNPs with significant main effects on coronary artery disease or blood pressure from large published genome-wide association studies (Pinteraction >= 0.01). Our results suggest that there are no major pharmacogenetic influences of common SNPs on the relationship between blood pressure medications and the risk of incident CVD.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Cardiovascular Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Treatment Outcome}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0140496}, author = {Bis, Joshua C and Sitlani, Colleen and Irvin, Ryan and Avery, Christy L and Smith, Albert Vernon and Sun, Fangui and Evans, Daniel S and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Xiaohui and Trompet, Stella and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Harris, Tamara B and Quibrera, P Miguel and Brody, Jennifer A and Demissie, Serkalem and Davis, Barry R and Wiggins, Kerri L and Tranah, Gregory J and Lange, Leslie A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stott, David J and Franco, Oscar H and Launer, Lenore J and St{\"u}rmer, Til and Taylor, Kent D and Cupples, L Adrienne and Eckfeldt, John H and Smith, Nicholas L and Liu, Yongmei and Wilson, James G and Heckbert, Susan R and Buckley, Brendan M and Ikram, M Arfan and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and de Craen, Anton J M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rotter, Jerome I and Ford, Ian and Hofman, Albert and Sattar, Naveed and Slagboom, P Eline and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Lumley, Thomas and Cummings, Steven R and Taylor, Herman A and Post, Wendy and Jukema, J Wouter and Stricker, Bruno H and Whitsel, Eric A and Psaty, Bruce M and Arnett, Donna} } @article {6691, title = {Exome sequencing identifies rare LDLR and APOA5 alleles conferring risk for myocardial infarction.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {518}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Feb 5}, pages = {102-6}, abstract = {

Myocardial infarction (MI), a leading cause of death around the world, displays a complex pattern of inheritance. When MI occurs early in life, genetic inheritance is a major component to risk. Previously, rare mutations in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) genes have been shown to contribute to MI risk in individual families, whereas common variants at more than 45 loci have been associated with MI risk in the population. Here we evaluate how rare mutations contribute to early-onset MI risk in the population. We sequenced the protein-coding regions of 9,793 genomes from patients with MI at an early age (<=50 years in males and <=60 years in females) along with MI-free controls. We identified two genes in which rare coding-sequence mutations were more frequent in MI cases versus controls at exome-wide significance. At low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 4.2-fold increased risk for MI; carriers of null alleles at LDLR were at even higher risk (13-fold difference). Approximately 2\% of early MI cases harbour a rare, damaging mutation in LDLR; this estimate is similar to one made more than 40 years ago using an analysis of total cholesterol. Among controls, about 1 in 217 carried an LDLR coding-sequence mutation and had plasma LDL cholesterol > 190~mg~dl(-1). At apolipoprotein A-V (APOA5), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 2.2-fold increased risk for MI. When compared with non-carriers, LDLR mutation carriers had higher plasma LDL cholesterol, whereas APOA5 mutation carriers had higher plasma triglycerides. Recent evidence has connected MI risk with coding-sequence mutations at two genes functionally related to APOA5, namely lipoprotein lipase and apolipoprotein C-III (refs 18, 19). Combined, these observations suggest that, as well as LDL cholesterol, disordered metabolism of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins contributes to MI risk.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Age of Onset, Alleles, Apolipoproteins A, Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Exome, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetics, Population, Heterozygote, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mutation, Myocardial Infarction, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Receptors, LDL, Triglycerides, United States}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature13917}, author = {Do, Ron and Stitziel, Nathan O and Won, Hong-Hee and J{\o}rgensen, Anders Berg and Duga, Stefano and Angelica Merlini, Pier and Kiezun, Adam and Farrall, Martin and Goel, Anuj and Zuk, Or and Guella, Illaria and Asselta, Rosanna and Lange, Leslie A and Peloso, Gina M and Auer, Paul L and Girelli, Domenico and Martinelli, Nicola and Farlow, Deborah N and DePristo, Mark A and Roberts, Robert and Stewart, Alexander F R and Saleheen, Danish and Danesh, John and Epstein, Stephen E and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Hovingh, G Kees and Kastelein, John J and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Erdmann, Jeanette and Shah, Svati H and Kraus, William E and Davies, Robert and Nikpay, Majid and Johansen, Christopher T and Wang, Jian and Hegele, Robert A and Hechter, Eliana and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Kleber, Marcus E and Huang, Jie and Johnson, Andrew D and Li, Mingyao and Burke, Greg L and Gross, Myron and Liu, Yongmei and Assimes, Themistocles L and Heiss, Gerardo and Lange, Ethan M and Folsom, Aaron R and Taylor, Herman A and Olivieri, Oliviero and Hamsten, Anders and Clarke, Robert and Reilly, Dermot F and Yin, Wu and Rivas, Manuel A and Donnelly, Peter and Rossouw, Jacques E and Psaty, Bruce M and Herrington, David M and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and Bamshad, Michael J and Tracy, Russell P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and Spertus, John A and Cresci, Sharon and Hartiala, Jaana and Tang, W H Wilson and Hazen, Stanley L and Allayee, Hooman and Reiner, Alex P and Carlson, Christopher S and Kooperberg, Charles and Jackson, Rebecca D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Lander, Eric S and Schwartz, Stephen M and Siscovick, David S and McPherson, Ruth and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Watkins, Hugh and Nickerson, Deborah A and Ardissino, Diego and Sunyaev, Shamil R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Altshuler, David and Gabriel, Stacey and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {7376, title = {Gene-centric approach identifies new and known loci for FVIII activity and VWF antigen levels in European Americans and African Americans.}, journal = {Am J Hematol}, volume = {90}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jun}, pages = {534-40}, abstract = {

Coagulation factor VIII and von Willebrand factor (VWF) are key proteins in procoagulant activation. Higher FVIII coagulant activity (FVIII :C) and VWF antigen (VWF :Ag) are risk factors for cardiovascular disease and venous thromboembolism. Beyond associations with ABO blood group, genetic determinants of FVIII and VWF are not well understood, especially in non European-American populations. We performed a genetic association study of FVIII :C and VWF:Ag that assessed 50,000 gene-centric single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 18,556 European Americans (EAs) and 5,047 African Americans (AAs) from five population-based cohorts. Previously unreported associations for FVIII :C were identified in both AAs and EAs with KNG1 (most significantly associated SNP rs710446, Ile581Thr, Ile581Thr, P = 5.10 {\texttimes} 10(-7) in EAs and P = 3.88 {\texttimes} 10(-3) in AAs) and VWF rs7962217 (Gly2705Arg,P = 6.30 {\texttimes} 10(-9) in EAs and P = 2.98 {\texttimes} 10(-2) in AAs. Significant associations for FVIII :C were also observed with F8/TMLHE region SNP rs12557310 in EAs (P = 8.02 {\texttimes} 10(-10) ), with VWF rs1800380 in AAs (P = 5.62 {\texttimes} 10(-11) ), and with MAT1A rs2236568 in AAs (P51.69 {\texttimes} 10(-6) ). We replicated previously reported associations of FVIII :C and VWF :Ag with the ABO blood group, VWF rs1063856(Thr789Ala), rs216321 (Ala852Gln), and VWF rs2229446 (Arg2185Gln). Findings from this study expand our understanding of genetic influences for FVIII :C and VWF :Ag in both EAs and AAs.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, European Continental Ancestry Group, Factor VIII, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Methionine Adenosyltransferase, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Venous Thromboembolism, von Willebrand Factor}, issn = {1096-8652}, doi = {10.1002/ajh.24005}, author = {Tang, Weihong and Cushman, Mary and Green, David and Rich, Stephen S and Lange, Leslie A and Yang, Qiong and Tracy, Russell P and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Basu, Saonli and Wilson, James G and Keating, Brendan J and Weng, Lu-Chen and Taylor, Herman A and Jacobs, David R and Delaney, Joseph A and Palmer, Cameron D and Young, Taylor and Pankow, James S and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L and Reiner, Alexander P and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {6863, title = {HMG-coenzyme A reductase inhibition, type 2 diabetes, and bodyweight: evidence from genetic analysis and randomised trials.}, journal = {Lancet}, volume = {385}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan 24}, pages = {351-61}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Statins increase the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus. We aimed to assess whether this increase in risk is a consequence of inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGCR), the intended drug target.

METHODS: We used single nucleotide polymorphisms in the HMGCR gene, rs17238484 (for the main analysis) and rs12916 (for a subsidiary analysis) as proxies for HMGCR inhibition by statins. We examined associations of these variants with plasma lipid, glucose, and insulin concentrations; bodyweight; waist circumference; and prevalent and incident type 2 diabetes. Study-specific effect estimates per copy of each LDL-lowering allele were pooled by meta-analysis. These findings were compared with a meta-analysis of new-onset type 2 diabetes and bodyweight change data from randomised trials of statin drugs. The effects of statins in each randomised trial were assessed using meta-analysis.

FINDINGS: Data were available for up to 223 463 individuals from 43 genetic studies. Each additional rs17238484-G allele was associated with a mean 0{\textperiodcentered}06 mmol/L (95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}05-0{\textperiodcentered}07) lower LDL cholesterol and higher body weight (0{\textperiodcentered}30 kg, 0{\textperiodcentered}18-0{\textperiodcentered}43), waist circumference (0{\textperiodcentered}32 cm, 0{\textperiodcentered}16-0{\textperiodcentered}47), plasma insulin concentration (1{\textperiodcentered}62\%, 0{\textperiodcentered}53-2{\textperiodcentered}72), and plasma glucose concentration (0{\textperiodcentered}23\%, 0{\textperiodcentered}02-0{\textperiodcentered}44). The rs12916 SNP had similar effects on LDL cholesterol, bodyweight, and waist circumference. The rs17238484-G allele seemed to be associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes (odds ratio [OR] per allele 1{\textperiodcentered}02, 95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}00-1{\textperiodcentered}05); the rs12916-T allele association was consistent (1{\textperiodcentered}06, 1{\textperiodcentered}03-1{\textperiodcentered}09). In 129 170 individuals in randomised trials, statins lowered LDL cholesterol by 0{\textperiodcentered}92 mmol/L (95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}18-1{\textperiodcentered}67) at 1-year of follow-up, increased bodyweight by 0{\textperiodcentered}24 kg (95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}10-0{\textperiodcentered}38 in all trials; 0{\textperiodcentered}33 kg, 95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}24-0{\textperiodcentered}42 in placebo or standard care controlled trials and -0{\textperiodcentered}15 kg, 95\% CI -0{\textperiodcentered}39 to 0{\textperiodcentered}08 in intensive-dose vs moderate-dose trials) at a mean of 4{\textperiodcentered}2 years (range 1{\textperiodcentered}9-6{\textperiodcentered}7) of follow-up, and increased the odds of new-onset type 2 diabetes (OR 1{\textperiodcentered}12, 95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}06-1{\textperiodcentered}18 in all trials; 1{\textperiodcentered}11, 95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}03-1{\textperiodcentered}20 in placebo or standard care controlled trials and 1{\textperiodcentered}12, 95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}04-1{\textperiodcentered}22 in intensive-dose vs moderate dose trials).

INTERPRETATION: The increased risk of type 2 diabetes noted with statins is at least partially explained by HMGCR inhibition.

FUNDING: The funding sources are cited at the end of the paper.

}, keywords = {Aged, Body Mass Index, Body Weight, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Genetic Testing, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA Reductases, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Risk Factors}, issn = {1474-547X}, doi = {10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61183-1}, author = {Swerdlow, Daniel I and Preiss, David and Kuchenbaecker, Karoline B and Holmes, Michael V and Engmann, Jorgen E L and Shah, Tina and Sofat, Reecha and Stender, Stefan and Johnson, Paul C D and Scott, Robert A and Leusink, Maarten and Verweij, Niek and Sharp, Stephen J and Guo, Yiran and Giambartolomei, Claudia and Chung, Christina and Peasey, Anne and Amuzu, Antoinette and Li, KaWah and Palmen, Jutta and Howard, Philip and Cooper, Jackie A and Drenos, Fotios and Li, Yun R and Lowe, Gordon and Gallacher, John and Stewart, Marlene C W and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Buxbaum, Sarah G and van der A, Daphne L and Forouhi, Nita G and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Schnabel, Renate B and Hubacek, Jaroslav A and Kubinova, Ruzena and Baceviciene, Migle and Tamosiunas, Abdonas and Pajak, Andrzej and Topor-Madry, Roman and Stepaniak, Urszula and Malyutina, Sofia and Baldassarre, Damiano and Sennblad, Bengt and Tremoli, Elena and de Faire, Ulf and Veglia, Fabrizio and Ford, Ian and Jukema, J Wouter and Westendorp, Rudi G J and de Borst, Gert Jan and de Jong, Pim A and Algra, Ale and Spiering, Wilko and Maitland-van der Zee, Anke H and Klungel, Olaf H and de Boer, Anthonius and Doevendans, Pieter A and Eaton, Charles B and Robinson, Jennifer G and Duggan, David and Kjekshus, John and Downs, John R and Gotto, Antonio M and Keech, Anthony C and Marchioli, Roberto and Tognoni, Gianni and Sever, Peter S and Poulter, Neil R and Waters, David D and Pedersen, Terje R and Amarenco, Pierre and Nakamura, Haruo and McMurray, John J V and Lewsey, James D and Chasman, Daniel I and Ridker, Paul M and Maggioni, Aldo P and Tavazzi, Luigi and Ray, Kausik K and Seshasai, Sreenivasa Rao Kondapally and Manson, JoAnn E and Price, Jackie F and Whincup, Peter H and Morris, Richard W and Lawlor, Debbie A and Smith, George Davey and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Schreiner, Pamela J and Fornage, Myriam and Siscovick, David S and Cushman, Mary and Kumari, Meena and Wareham, Nick J and Verschuren, W M Monique and Redline, Susan and Patel, Sanjay R and Whittaker, John C and Hamsten, Anders and Delaney, Joseph A and Dale, Caroline and Gaunt, Tom R and Wong, Andrew and Kuh, Diana and Hardy, Rebecca and Kathiresan, Sekar and Castillo, Berta A and van der Harst, Pim and Brunner, Eric J and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Marmot, Michael G and Krauss, Ronald M and Tsai, Michael and Coresh, Josef and Hoogeveen, Ronald C and Psaty, Bruce M and Lange, Leslie A and Hakonarson, Hakon and Dudbridge, Frank and Humphries, Steve E and Talmud, Philippa J and Kivimaki, Mika and Timpson, Nicholas J and Langenberg, Claudia and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Voevoda, Mikhail and Bobak, Martin and Pikhart, Hynek and Wilson, James G and Reiner, Alex P and Keating, Brendan J and Hingorani, Aroon D and Sattar, Naveed} } @article {6568, title = {Mendelian randomization of blood lipids for coronary heart disease.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, volume = {36}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar 01}, pages = {539-50}, abstract = {

AIMS: To investigate the causal role of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides in coronary heart disease (CHD) using multiple instrumental variables for Mendelian randomization.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We developed weighted allele scores based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with established associations with HDL-C, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). For each trait, we constructed two scores. The first was unrestricted, including all independent SNPs associated with the lipid trait identified from a prior meta-analysis (threshold P < 2 {\texttimes} 10(-6)); and the second a restricted score, filtered to remove any SNPs also associated with either of the other two lipid traits at P <= 0.01. Mendelian randomization meta-analyses were conducted in 17 studies including 62,199 participants and 12,099 CHD events. Both the unrestricted and restricted allele scores for LDL-C (42 and 19 SNPs, respectively) associated with CHD. For HDL-C, the unrestricted allele score (48 SNPs) was associated with CHD (OR: 0.53; 95\% CI: 0.40, 0.70), per 1 mmol/L higher HDL-C, but neither the restricted allele score (19 SNPs; OR: 0.91; 95\% CI: 0.42, 1.98) nor the unrestricted HDL-C allele score adjusted for triglycerides, LDL-C, or statin use (OR: 0.81; 95\% CI: 0.44, 1.46) showed a robust association. For triglycerides, the unrestricted allele score (67 SNPs) and the restricted allele score (27 SNPs) were both associated with CHD (OR: 1.62; 95\% CI: 1.24, 2.11 and 1.61; 95\% CI: 1.00, 2.59, respectively) per 1-log unit increment. However, the unrestricted triglyceride score adjusted for HDL-C, LDL-C, and statin use gave an OR for CHD of 1.01 (95\% CI: 0.59, 1.75).

CONCLUSION: The genetic findings support a causal effect of triglycerides on CHD risk, but a causal role for HDL-C, though possible, remains less certain.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, HDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Gene Frequency, Genotype, Genotyping Techniques, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Triglycerides}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/eht571}, author = {Holmes, Michael V and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Palmer, Tom M and Drenos, Fotios and Lanktree, Matthew B and Nelson, Christopher P and Dale, Caroline E and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Finan, Chris and Swerdlow, Daniel I and Tragante, Vinicius and van Iperen, Erik P A and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Shah, Sonia and Elbers, Clara C and Shah, Tina and Engmann, Jorgen and Giambartolomei, Claudia and White, Jon and Zabaneh, Delilah and Sofat, Reecha and McLachlan, Stela and Doevendans, Pieter A and Balmforth, Anthony J and Hall, Alistair S and North, Kari E and Almoguera, Berta and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Cushman, Mary and Fornage, Myriam and Patel, Sanjay R and Redline, Susan and Siscovick, David S and Tsai, Michael Y and Karczewski, Konrad J and Hofker, Marten H and Verschuren, W Monique and Bots, Michiel L and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Melander, Olle and Dominiczak, Anna F and Morris, Richard and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Price, Jackie and Kumari, Meena and Baumert, Jens and Peters, Annette and Thorand, Barbara and Koenig, Wolfgang and Gaunt, Tom R and Humphries, Steve E and Clarke, Robert and Watkins, Hugh and Farrall, Martin and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and de Bakker, Paul I W and Lange, Leslie A and Davey Smith, George and Reiner, Alex P and Talmud, Philippa J and Kivimaki, Mika and Lawlor, Debbie A and Dudbridge, Frank and Samani, Nilesh J and Keating, Brendan J and Hingorani, Aroon D and Casas, Juan P} } @article {6809, title = {Plasma Levels of Soluble Interleukin-2 Receptor α: Associations With Clinical Cardiovascular Events and Genome-Wide Association Scan.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {35}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct}, pages = {2246-53}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Interleukin (IL) -2 receptor subunit α regulates lymphocyte activation, which plays an important role in atherosclerosis. Associations between soluble IL-2Rα (sIL-2Rα) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) have not been widely studied and little is known about the genetic determinants of sIL-2Rα levels.

APPROACH AND RESULTS: We measured baseline levels of sIL-2Rα in 4408 European American (EA) and 766 African American (AA) adults from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and examined associations with baseline CVD risk factors, subclinical CVD, and incident CVD events. We also performed a genome-wide association study for sIL-2Rα in CHS (2964 EAs and 683 AAs) and further combined CHS EA results with those from two other EA cohorts in a meta-analysis (n=4464 EAs). In age, sex- and race- adjusted models, sIL-2Rα was positively associated with current smoking, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, insulin, waist circumference, C-reactive protein, IL-6, fibrinogen, internal carotid wall thickness, all-cause mortality, CVD mortality, and incident CVD, stroke, and heart failure. When adjusted for baseline CVD risk factors and subclinical CVD, associations with all-cause mortality, CVD mortality, and heart failure remained significant in both EAs and AAs. In the EA genome-wide association study analysis, we observed 52 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the chromosome 10p15-14 region, which contains IL2RA, IL15RA, and RMB17, that reached genome-wide significance (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)). The most significant single-nucleotide polymorphism was rs7911500 (P=1.31{\texttimes}10(-75)). The EA meta-analysis results were highly consistent with CHS-only results. No single-nucleotide polymorphisms reached statistical significance in the AAs.

CONCLUSIONS: These results support a role for sIL-2Rα in atherosclerosis and provide evidence for multiple-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms at chromosome 10p15-14.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Age Distribution, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Incidence, Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Sex Distribution, Survival Analysis}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/ATVBAHA.115.305289}, author = {Durda, Peter and Sabourin, Jeremy and Lange, Ethan M and Nalls, Mike A and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Jenny, Nancy Swords and Li, Jin and Walston, Jeremy and Harris, Tamara B and Psaty, Bruce M and Valdar, William and Liu, Yongmei and Cushman, Mary and Reiner, Alex P and Tracy, Russell P and Lange, Leslie A} } @article {6849, title = {Rare and Coding Region Genetic Variants Associated With Risk of Ischemic Stroke: The NHLBI Exome Sequence Project.}, journal = {JAMA Neurol}, volume = {72}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jul}, pages = {781-8}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Stroke is the second leading cause of death and the third leading cause of years of life lost. Genetic factors contribute to stroke prevalence, and candidate gene and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified variants associated with ischemic stroke risk. These variants often have small effects without obvious biological significance. Exome sequencing may discover predicted protein-altering variants with a potentially large effect on ischemic stroke risk.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the contribution of rare and common genetic variants to ischemic stroke risk by targeting the protein-coding regions of the human genome.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Exome Sequencing Project (ESP) analyzed approximately 6000 participants from numerous cohorts of European and African ancestry. For discovery, 365 cases of ischemic stroke (small-vessel and large-vessel subtypes) and 809 European ancestry controls were sequenced; for replication, 47 affected sibpairs concordant for stroke subtype and an African American case-control series were sequenced, with 1672 cases and 4509 European ancestry controls genotyped. The ESP{\textquoteright}s exome sequencing and genotyping started on January 1, 2010, and continued through June 30, 2012. Analyses were conducted on the full data set between July 12, 2012, and July 13, 2013.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Discovery of new variants or genes contributing to ischemic stroke risk and subtype (primary analysis) and determination of support for protein-coding variants contributing to risk in previously published candidate genes (secondary analysis).

RESULTS: We identified 2 novel genes associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke: a protein-coding variant in PDE4DIP (rs1778155; odds ratio, 2.15; P = 2.63 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with an intracellular signal transduction mechanism and in ACOT4 (rs35724886; odds ratio, 2.04; P = 1.24 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) with a fatty acid metabolism; confirmation of PDE4DIP was observed in affected sibpair families with large-vessel stroke subtype and in African Americans. Replication of protein-coding variants in candidate genes was observed for 2 previously reported GWAS associations: ZFHX3 (cardioembolic stroke) and ABCA1 (large-vessel stroke).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Exome sequencing discovered 2 novel genes and mechanisms, PDE4DIP and ACOT4, associated with increased risk for ischemic stroke. In addition, ZFHX3 and ABCA1 were discovered to have protein-coding variants associated with ischemic stroke. These results suggest that genetic variation in novel pathways contributes to ischemic stroke risk and serves as a target for prediction, prevention, and therapy.

}, keywords = {Aged, Brain Ischemia, Exome, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Nuclear Proteins, Open Reading Frames, Palmitoyl-CoA Hydrolase, Stroke, United States}, issn = {2168-6157}, doi = {10.1001/jamaneurol.2015.0582}, author = {Auer, Paul L and Nalls, Mike and Meschia, James F and Worrall, Bradford B and Longstreth, W T and Seshadri, Sudha and Kooperberg, Charles and Burger, Kathleen M and Carlson, Christopher S and Carty, Cara L and Chen, Wei-Min and Cupples, L Adrienne and DeStefano, Anita L and Fornage, Myriam and Hardy, John and Hsu, Li and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jarvik, Gail P and Kim, Daniel S and Lakshminarayan, Kamakshi and Lange, Leslie A and Manichaikul, Ani and Quinlan, Aaron R and Singleton, Andrew B and Thornton, Timothy A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Peters, Ulrike and Rich, Stephen S} } @article {8639, title = {Whole genome sequence analysis of pulmonary function and COPD in 19,996 multi-ethnic participants.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 10 14}, pages = {5182}, abstract = {

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diagnosed by reduced lung function, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. We performed whole genome sequence (WGS) analysis of lung function and COPD in a multi-ethnic sample of 11,497 participants from population- and family-based studies, and 8499 individuals from COPD-enriched studies in the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. We identify at genome-wide significance 10 known GWAS loci and 22 distinct, previously unreported loci, including two common variant signals from stratified analysis of African Americans. Four novel common variants within the regions of PIAS1, RGN (two variants) and FTO show evidence of replication in the UK Biobank (European ancestry n ~ 320,000), while colocalization analyses leveraging multi-omic data from GTEx and TOPMed identify potential molecular mechanisms underlying four of the 22 novel loci. Our study demonstrates the value of performing WGS analyses and multi-omic follow-up in cohorts of diverse ancestry.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO, Calcium-Binding Proteins, Feasibility Studies, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Lung, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Protein Inhibitors of Activated STAT, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Respiratory Physiological Phenomena, Small Ubiquitin-Related Modifier Proteins, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-18334-7}, author = {Zhao, Xutong and Qiao, Dandi and Yang, Chaojie and Kasela, Silva and Kim, Wonji and Ma, Yanlin and Shrine, Nick and Batini, Chiara and Sofer, Tamar and Taliun, Sarah A Gagliano and Sakornsakolpat, Phuwanat and Balte, Pallavi P and Prokopenko, Dmitry and Yu, Bing and Lange, Leslie A and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Cade, Brian E and Lee, Jiwon and Gharib, Sina A and Daya, Michelle and Laurie, Cecelia A and Ruczinski, Ingo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loehr, Laura R and Bartz, Traci M and Morrison, Alanna C and Psaty, Bruce M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wilson, James G and Taylor, Kent D and Durda, Peter and Johnson, W Craig and Cornell, Elaine and Guo, Xiuqing and Liu, Yongmei and Tracy, Russell P and Ardlie, Kristin G and Aguet, Francois and VanDenBerg, David J and Papanicolaou, George J and Rotter, Jerome I and Barnes, Kathleen C and Jain, Deepti and Nickerson, Deborah A and Muzny, Donna M and Metcalf, Ginger A and Doddapaneni, Harshavardhan and Dugan-Perez, Shannon and Gupta, Namrata and Gabriel, Stacey and Rich, Stephen S and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Redline, Susan and Reed, Robert M and Laurie, Cathy C and Daviglus, Martha L and Preudhomme, Liana K and Burkart, Kristin M and Kaplan, Robert C and Wain, Louise V and Tobin, Martin D and London, Stephanie J and Lappalainen, Tuuli and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Silverman, Edwin K and Barr, R Graham and Cho, Michael H and Manichaikul, Ani} } @article {8779, title = {Whole-genome sequencing association analysis of quantitative red blood cell phenotypes: The NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {108}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 05 06}, pages = {874-893}, abstract = {

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS), a powerful tool for detecting novel coding and non-coding disease-causing variants, has largely been applied to clinical diagnosis of inherited disorders. Here we leveraged WGS data in up to 62,653 ethnically diverse participants from the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program and assessed statistical association of variants with seven red blood cell (RBC) quantitative traits. We discovered 14 single variant-RBC trait associations at 12 genomic loci, which have not been reported previously. Several of the RBC trait-variant associations (RPN1, ELL2, MIDN, HBB, HBA1, PIEZO1, and G6PD) were replicated in independent GWAS datasets imputed to the TOPMed reference panel. Most of these discovered variants are rare/low frequency, and several are observed disproportionately among non-European Ancestry (African, Hispanic/Latino, or East Asian) populations. We identified a 3~bp indel p.Lys2169del (g.88717175_88717177TCT[4]) (common only in the Ashkenazi Jewish population) of PIEZO1, a gene responsible for the Mendelian red cell disorder hereditary xerocytosis (MIM: 194380), associated with higher mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC). In stepwise conditional analysis and in gene-based rare variant aggregated association analysis, we identified several of the variants in HBB, HBA1, TMPRSS6, and G6PD that represent the carrier state for known coding, promoter, or splice site loss-of-function variants that cause inherited RBC disorders. Finally, we applied base and nuclease editing to demonstrate that the sentinel variant rs112097551 (nearest gene RPN1) acts through a cis-regulatory element that exerts long-range control of the gene RUVBL1 which is essential for hematopoiesis. Together, these results demonstrate the utility of WGS in ethnically diverse population-based samples and gene editing for expanding knowledge of the genetic architecture of quantitative hematologic traits and suggest a continuum between complex trait and Mendelian red cell disorders.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 16, Datasets as Topic, Erythrocytes, Female, Gene Editing, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, HEK293 Cells, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Phenotype, Quality Control, Reproducibility of Results, United States}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.04.003}, author = {Hu, Yao and Stilp, Adrienne M and McHugh, Caitlin P and Rao, Shuquan and Jain, Deepti and Zheng, Xiuwen and Lane, John and M{\'e}ric de Bellefon, S{\'e}bastian and Raffield, Laura M and Chen, Ming-Huei and Yanek, Lisa R and Wheeler, Marsha and Yao, Yao and Ren, Chunyan and Broome, Jai and Moon, Jee-Young and de Vries, Paul S and Hobbs, Brian D and Sun, Quan and Surendran, Praveen and Brody, Jennifer A and Blackwell, Thomas W and Choquet, Helene and Ryan, Kathleen and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Wang, Zhe and Chami, Nathalie and Preuss, Michael H and Min, Nancy and Ekunwe, Lynette and Lange, Leslie A and Cushman, Mary and Faraday, Nauder and Curran, Joanne E and Almasy, Laura and Kundu, Kousik and Smith, Albert V and Gabriel, Stacey and Rotter, Jerome I and Fornage, Myriam and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Smith, Nicholas L and North, Kari E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Becker, Lewis C and Lewis, Joshua P and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Hou, Lifang and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Morrison, Alanna C and Beaty, Terri H and Kaplan, Robert and Correa, Adolfo and Blangero, John and Jorgenson, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Walton, Russell T and Kleinstiver, Benjamin P and Tang, Hua and Loos, Ruth J F and Soranzo, Nicole and Butterworth, Adam S and Nickerson, Debbie and Rich, Stephen S and Mitchell, Braxton D and Johnson, Andrew D and Auer, Paul L and Li, Yun and Mathias, Rasika A and Lettre, Guillaume and Pankratz, Nathan and Laurie, Cathy C and Laurie, Cecelia A and Bauer, Daniel E and Conomos, Matthew P and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {9245, title = {Circulating Soluble CD163, Associations With Cardiovascular Outcomes and Mortality, and Identification of Genetic Variants in Older Individuals: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {11}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Nov}, pages = {e024374}, abstract = {

Background Monocytes/macrophages participate in cardiovascular disease. CD163 (cluster of differentiation 163) is a monocyte/macrophage receptor, and the shed sCD163 (soluble CD163) reflects monocyte/macrophage activation. We examined the association of sCD163 with incident cardiovascular disease events and performed a genome-wide association study to identify sCD163-associated variants. Methods and Results We measured plasma sCD163 in 5214 adults (aged >=65 years, 58.7\% women, 16.2\% Black) of the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study). We used Cox regression models (associations of sCD163 with incident events and mortality); median follow-up was 26 years. Genome-wide association study analyses were stratified on race. Adjusted for age, sex, and race and ethnicity, sCD163 levels were associated with all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.08 [95\% CI, 1.04-1.12] per SD increase), cardiovascular disease mortality (HR, 1.15 [95\% CI, 1.09-1.21]), incident coronary heart disease (HR, 1.10 [95\% CI, 1.04-1.16]), and incident heart failure (HR, 1.18 [95\% CI, 1.12-1.25]). When further adjusted (eg, cardiovascular disease risk factors), only incident coronary heart disease lost significance. In European American individuals, genome-wide association studies identified 38 variants on chromosome 2 near (top result rs62165726, =3.3{\texttimes}10),19 variants near chromosome 17 gene (rs55714927, =1.5{\texttimes}10), and 18 variants near chromosome 11 gene . These regions replicated in the European ancestry ADDITION-PRO cohort, a longitudinal cohort study nested in the Danish arm of the Anglo-Danish-Dutch~study~of~Intensive~Treatment~Intensive Treatment In peOple with screeNdetcted Diabetes in Primary Care. In Black individuals, we identified 9 variants on chromosome 6 (rs3129781 =7.1{\texttimes}10) in the region, and 3 variants (rs115391969 =4.3{\texttimes}10) near the chromosome 16 gene Conclusions Monocyte function, as measured by sCD163, may be predictive of overall and cardiovascular-specific mortality and incident heart failure.

}, keywords = {Aged, Antigens, CD, Antigens, Differentiation, Myelomonocytic, Asialoglycoprotein Receptor, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Failure, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.121.024374}, author = {Durda, Peter and Raffield, Laura M and Lange, Ethan M and Olson, Nels C and Jenny, Nancy Swords and Cushman, Mary and Deichgraeber, Pia and Grarup, Niels and Jonsson, Anna and Hansen, Torben and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Psaty, Bruce M and Reiner, Alex P and Tracy, Russell P and Lange, Leslie A} } @article {9579, title = {X-chromosome and kidney function: evidence from a multi-trait genetic analysis of 908,697 individuals reveals sex-specific and sex-differential findings in genes regulated by androgen response elements.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {15}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 18}, pages = {586}, abstract = {

X-chromosomal genetic variants are understudied but can yield valuable insights into sexually dimorphic human traits and diseases. We performed a sex-stratified cross-ancestry X-chromosome-wide association meta-analysis of seven kidney-related traits (n = 908,697), identifying 23 loci genome-wide significantly associated with two of the traits: 7 for uric acid and 16 for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), including four novel eGFR loci containing the functionally plausible prioritized genes ACSL4, CLDN2, TSPAN6 and the female-specific DRP2. Further, we identified five novel sex-interactions, comprising male-specific effects at FAM9B and AR/EDA2R, and three sex-differential findings with larger genetic effect sizes in males at DCAF12L1 and MST4 and larger effect sizes in females at HPRT1. All prioritized genes in loci showing significant sex-interactions were located next to androgen response elements (ARE). Five ARE genes showed sex-differential expressions. This study contributes new insights into sex-dimorphisms of kidney traits along with new prioritized gene targets for further molecular research.

}, keywords = {Androgens, Chromosomes, Human, X, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Kidney, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Response Elements, Tetraspanins}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-024-44709-1}, author = {Scholz, Markus and Horn, Katrin and Pott, Janne and Wuttke, Matthias and K{\"u}hnapfel, Andreas and Nasr, M Kamal and Kirsten, Holger and Li, Yong and Hoppmann, Anselm and Gorski, Mathias and Ghasemi, Sahar and Li, Man and Tin, Adrienne and Chai, Jin-Fang and Cocca, Massimiliano and Wang, Judy and Nutile, Teresa and Akiyama, Masato and {\r A}svold, Bj{\o}rn Olav and Bansal, Nisha and Biggs, Mary L and Boutin, Thibaud and Brenner, Hermann and Brumpton, Ben and Burkhardt, Ralph and Cai, Jianwen and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Chalmers, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Chee, Miao Ling and Chee, Miao Li and Chen, Xu and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cifkova, Renata and Daviglus, Martha and Delgado, Graciela and Dittrich, Katalin and Edwards, Todd L and Endlich, Karlhans and Michael Gaziano, J and Giri, Ayush and Giulianini, Franco and Gordon, Scott D and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Hallan, Stein and Hamet, Pavel and Hartman, Catharina A and Hayward, Caroline and Heid, Iris M and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Holleczek, Bernd and Holm, Hilma and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Hveem, Kristian and Isermann, Berend and Jonas, Jost B and Joshi, Peter K and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanai, Masahiro and Kastarinen, Mika and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kiess, Wieland and Kleber, Marcus E and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Kovacs, Peter and Krajcoviechova, Alena and Kramer, Holly and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Kuokkanen, Mikko and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lange, Leslie A and Lash, James P and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Hengtong and Lin, Bridget M and Liu, Jianjun and Loeffler, Markus and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Martin, Nicholas G and Matsuda, Koichi and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mononen, Nina and Montgomery, Grant W and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Nauck, Matthias and Nikus, Kjell and Nolte, Ilja M and Noordam, Raymond and Okada, Yukinori and Olafsson, Isleifur and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Perola, Markus and Pirastu, Nicola and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Poulain, Tanja and Psaty, Bruce M and Rabelink, Ton J and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rasheed, Humaira and Reilly, Dermot F and Rice, Kenneth M and Richmond, Anne and Ridker, Paul M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Salomaa, Veikko and Schneiderman, Neil and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Sims, Mario and Snieder, Harold and Stark, Klaus J and Stefansson, Kari and Stocker, Hannah and Stumvoll, Michael and Sulem, Patrick and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Svensson, Per O and Tai, E-Shyong and Taylor, Kent D and Tayo, Bamidele O and Teren, Andrej and Tham, Yih-Chung and Thiery, Joachim and Thio, Chris H L and Thomas, Laurent F and Tremblay, Johanne and T{\"o}njes, Anke and van der Most, Peter J and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wang, Ya Xing and Wang, Chaolong and Wei, Wen Bin and Whitfield, John B and Wild, Sarah H and Wilson, James F and Winkler, Thomas W and Wong, Tien-Yin and Woodward, Mark and Sim, Xueling and Chu, Audrey Y and Feitosa, Mary F and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Hung, Adriana M and Teumer, Alexander and Franceschini, Nora and Parsa, Afshin and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Schlosser, Pascal and Pattaro, Cristian} } @article {9942, title = {Whole genome sequencing analysis of body mass index identifies novel African ancestry-specific risk allele.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {16}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 11}, pages = {3470}, abstract = {

Obesity is a major public health crisis associated with high mortality rates. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) investigating body mass index (BMI) have largely relied on imputed data from European individuals. This study leveraged whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 88,873 participants from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, of which 51\% were of non-European population groups. We discovered 18 BMI-associated signals (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10), including two secondary signals. Notably, we identified and replicated a novel low-frequency single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in MTMR3 that was common in individuals of African descent. Using a diverse study population, we further identified two novel secondary signals in known BMI loci and pinpointed two likely causal variants in the POC5 and DMD loci. Our work demonstrates the benefits of combining WGS and diverse cohorts in expanding current catalog of variants and genes confer risk for obesity, bringing us one step closer to personalized medicine.

}, keywords = {Adult, African People, Alleles, Body Mass Index, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population Groups, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-025-58420-2}, author = {Zhang, Xinruo and Brody, Jennifer A and Graff, Mariaelisa and Highland, Heather M and Chami, Nathalie and Xu, Hanfei and Wang, Zhe and Ferrier, Kendra R and Chittoor, Geetha and Josyula, Navya Shilpa and Meyer, Mariah and Gupta, Shreyash and Li, Xihao and Li, Zilin and Allison, Matthew A and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Bowden, Donald W and Broome, Jai G and Buth, Erin J and Carlson, Christopher S and Chang, Kyong-Mi and Chavan, Sameer and Chiu, Yen-Feng and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Conomos, Matthew P and DeMeo, Dawn L and Du, Mengmeng and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Eng, Celeste and Fohner, Alison E and Freedman, Barry I and Garrett, Melanie E and Guo, Xiuqing and Haiman, Chris and Heavner, Benjamin D and Hidalgo, Bertha and Hixson, James E and Ho, Yuk-Lam and Hobbs, Brian D and Hu, Donglei and Hui, Qin and Hwu, Chii-Min and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jain, Deepti and Kalyani, Rita R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika N and Lange, Ethan M and LeNoir, Michael and Li, Changwei and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and McHugh, Caitlin P and Morrison, Alanna C and Naseri, Take and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pankow, James S and Perry, James A and Peters, Ulrike and Preuss, Michael H and Rao, D C and Regan, Elizabeth A and Reupena, Sefuiva M and Roden, Dan M and Rodriguez-Santana, Jose and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Tiwari, Hemant K and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wang, Zeyuan and Weeks, Daniel E and Wessel, Jennifer and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wilkens, Lynne R and Wilson, Peter W F and Yanek, Lisa R and Yoneda, Zachary T and Zhao, Wei and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Burchard, Esteban G and Carson, April P and Chasman, Daniel I and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Curran, Joanne E and Fornage, Myriam and Gordeuk, Victor R and He, Jiang and Heckbert, Susan R and Hou, Lifang and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kooperberg, Charles and Minster, Ryan L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nouraie, Mehdi and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Benjamin Shoemaker, M and Smith, Nicholas L and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn J and Weiss, Scott T and Zhang, Yingze and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Sun, Yan V and Lin, Xihong and Cupples, L Adrienne and Lange, Leslie A and Liu, Ching-Ti and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Justice, Anne E} }