@article {1304, title = {Identification of a sudden cardiac death susceptibility locus at 2q24.2 through genome-wide association in European ancestry individuals.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jun}, pages = {e1002158}, abstract = {

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) continues to be one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, with an annual incidence estimated at 250,000-300,000 in the United States and with the vast majority occurring in the setting of coronary disease. We performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis in 1,283 SCD cases and >20,000 control individuals of European ancestry from 5 studies, with follow-up genotyping in up to 3,119 SCD cases and 11,146 controls from 11 European ancestry studies, and identify the BAZ2B locus as associated with SCD (Pā€Š=ā€Š1.8{\texttimes}10(-10)). The risk allele, while ancestral, has a frequency of ~1.4\%, suggesting strong negative selection and increases risk for SCD by 1.92-fold per allele (95\% CI 1.57-2.34). We also tested the role of 49 SNPs previously implicated in modulating electrocardiographic traits (QRS, QT, and RR intervals). Consistent with epidemiological studies showing increased risk of SCD with prolonged QRS/QT intervals, the interval-prolonging alleles are in aggregate associated with increased risk for SCD (Pā€Š=ā€Š0.006).

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Alleles, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Contraction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002158}, author = {Arking, Dan E and Junttila, M Juhani and Goyette, Philippe and Huertas-Vazquez, Adriana and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Blom, Marieke T and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Reinier, Kyndaron and Teodorescu, Carmen and Uy-Evanado, Audrey and Carter-Monroe, Naima and Kaikkonen, Kari S and Kortelainen, Marja-Leena and Boucher, Gabrielle and Lagac{\'e}, Caroline and Moes, Anna and Zhao, XiaoQing and Kolodgie, Frank and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Marsman, Roos F and Pazoki, Raha and Bardai, Abdennasser and Koster, Rudolph W and Dehghan, Abbas and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Bhatnagar, Pallav and Post, Wendy and Hilton, Gina and Prineas, Ronald J and Li, Man and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Ehret, Georg and Boerwinkle, Eric and Coresh, Josef and Kao, W H Linda and Psaty, Bruce M and Tomaselli, Gordon F and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Siscovick, David S and Burke, Greg L and Marb{\'a}n, Eduardo and Spooner, Peter M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Jui, Jonathan and Gunson, Karen and Kesaniemi, Y Antero and Wilde, Arthur A M and Tardif, Jean-Claude and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Bezzina, Connie R and Virmani, Renu and Stricker, Bruno H C H and Tan, Hanno L and Albert, Christine M and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Rioux, John D and Huikuri, Heikki V and Chugh, Sumeet S} } @article {1383, title = {Meta-analysis identifies six new susceptibility loci for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Apr 29}, pages = {670-5}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation is a highly prevalent arrhythmia and a major risk factor for stroke, heart failure and death. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry, including 6,707 with and 52,426 without atrial fibrillation. Six new atrial fibrillation susceptibility loci were identified and replicated in an additional sample of individuals of European ancestry, including 5,381 subjects with and 10,030 subjects without atrial fibrillation (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Four of the loci identified in Europeans were further replicated in silico in a GWAS of Japanese individuals, including 843 individuals with and 3,350 individuals without atrial fibrillation. The identified loci implicate candidate genes that encode transcription factors related to cardiopulmonary development, cardiac-expressed ion channels and cell signaling molecules.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Atrial Fibrillation, Child, Child, Preschool, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Young Adult}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2261}, author = {Ellinor, Patrick T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Albert, Christine M and Glazer, Nicole L and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Smith, Albert V and Arking, Dan E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Lubitz, Steven A and Bis, Joshua C and Chung, Mina K and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ozaki, Kouichi and Roberts, Jason D and Smith, J Gustav and Pfeufer, Arne and Sinner, Moritz F and Lohman, Kurt and Ding, Jingzhong and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Jonathan D and Rienstra, Michiel and Rice, Kenneth M and Van Wagoner, David R and Magnani, Jared W and Wakili, Reza and Clauss, Sebastian and Rotter, Jerome I and Steinbeck, Gerhard and Launer, Lenore J and Davies, Robert W and Borkovich, Matthew and Harris, Tamara B and Lin, Honghuang and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Milan, David J and Hofman, Albert and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chen, Lin Y and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Voight, Benjamin F and Li, Guo and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Kubo, Michiaki and Tedrow, Usha B and Rose, Lynda M and Ridker, Paul M and Conen, David and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Furukawa, Tetsushi and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Xu, Siyan and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Levy, Daniel and Nakamura, Yusuke and Parvez, Babar and Mahida, Saagar and Furie, Karen L and Rosand, Jonathan and Muhammad, Raafia and Psaty, Bruce M and Meitinger, Thomas and Perz, Siegfried and Wichmann, H-Erich and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Kao, W H Linda and Kathiresan, Sekar and Roden, Dan M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and McKnight, Barbara and Sj{\"o}gren, Marketa and Newman, Anne B and Liu, Yongmei and Gollob, Michael H and Melander, Olle and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Felix, Stephan B and Alonso, Alvaro and Darbar, Dawood and Barnard, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Heckbert, Susan R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan} } @article {8015, title = {Identification of heart rate-associated loci and their effects on cardiac conduction and rhythm disorders.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {621-31}, abstract = {

Elevated resting heart rate is associated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. In a 2-stage meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in up to 181,171 individuals, we identified 14 new loci associated with heart rate and confirmed associations with all 7 previously established loci. Experimental downregulation of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster and Danio rerio identified 20 genes at 11 loci that are relevant for heart rate regulation and highlight a role for genes involved in signal transmission, embryonic cardiac development and the pathophysiology of dilated cardiomyopathy, congenital heart failure and/or sudden cardiac death. In addition, genetic susceptibility to increased heart rate is associated with altered cardiac conduction and reduced risk of sick sinus syndrome, and both heart rate-increasing and heart rate-decreasing variants associate with risk of atrial fibrillation. Our findings provide fresh insights into the mechanisms regulating heart rate and identify new therapeutic targets.

}, keywords = {Animals, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Conduction System, Heart Rate, Humans, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2610}, author = {den Hoed, Marcel and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Brundel, Bianca J J M and Peal, David S and Evans, David M and Nolte, Ilja M and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Holm, Hilma and Handsaker, Robert E and Westra, Harm-Jan and Johnson, Toby and Isaacs, Aaron and Yang, Jian and Lundby, Alicia and Zhao, Jing Hua and Kim, Young Jin and Go, Min Jin and Almgren, Peter and Bochud, Murielle and Boucher, Gabrielle and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Gudbjartsson, Daniel and Hadley, David and van der Harst, Pim and Hayward, Caroline and den Heijer, Martin and Igl, Wilmar and Jackson, Anne U and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Kemp, John P and Kristiansson, Kati and Ladenvall, Claes and Lorentzon, Mattias and Montasser, May E and Njajou, Omer T and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and St Pourcain, Beate and Rankinen, Tuomo and Salo, Perttu and Tanaka, Toshiko and Timpson, Nicholas J and Vitart, Veronique and Waite, Lindsay and Wheeler, William and Zhang, Weihua and Draisma, Harmen H M and Feitosa, Mary F and Kerr, Kathleen F and Lind, Penelope A and Mihailov, Evelin and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Song, Ci and Weedon, Michael N and Xie, Weijia and Yengo, Loic and Absher, Devin and Albert, Christine M and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and de Bakker, Paul I W and Balkau, Beverley and Barlassina, Cristina and Benaglio, Paola and Bis, Joshua C and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Brage, S{\o}ren and Chanock, Stephen J and Chines, Peter S and Chung, Mina and Darbar, Dawood and Dina, Christian and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Elliott, Paul and Felix, Stephan B and Fischer, Krista and Fuchsberger, Christian and de Geus, Eco J C and Goyette, Philippe and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Havulinna, Aki S and Heckbert, Susan R and Hicks, Andrew A and Hofman, Albert and Holewijn, Suzanne and Hoogstra-Berends, Femke and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Jensen, Majken K and Johansson, Asa and Junttila, Juhani and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Kanon, Bart and Ketkar, Shamika and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Knowles, Joshua W and Kooner, Angrad S and Kors, Jan A and Kumari, Meena and Milani, Lili and Laiho, P{\"a}ivi and Lakatta, Edward G and Langenberg, Claudia and Leusink, Maarten and Liu, Yongmei and Luben, Robert N and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lynch, Stacey N and Markus, Marcello R P and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Mateo Leach, Irene and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarroll, Steven A and Medland, Sarah E and Miller, Kathryn A and Montgomery, Grant W and Morrison, Alanna C and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Navarro, Pau and Nelis, Mari and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ong, Ken K and Newman, Anne B and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and Rao, Dabeeru C and Ring, Susan M and Rossin, Elizabeth J and Rudan, Diana and Sanna, Serena and Scott, Robert A and Sehmi, Jaban S and Sharp, Stephen and Shin, Jordan T and Singleton, Andrew B and Smith, Albert V and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Tim D and Stewart, Chip and Stringham, Heather M and Tarasov, Kirill V and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Whitfield, John B and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Wong, Andrew and Wong, Quenna and Jamshidi, Yalda and Zitting, Paavo and Boer, Jolanda M A and Boomsma, Dorret I and Borecki, Ingrid B and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ekelund, Ulf and Forouhi, Nita G and Froguel, Philippe and Hingorani, Aroon and Ingelsson, Erik and Kivimaki, Mika and Kronmal, Richard A and Kuh, Diana and Lind, Lars and Martin, Nicholas G and Oostra, Ben A and Pedersen, Nancy L and Quertermous, Thomas and Rotter, Jerome I and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Verschuren, W M Monique and Walker, Mark and Albanes, Demetrius and Arnar, David O and Assimes, Themistocles L and Bandinelli, Stefania and Boehnke, Michael and de Boer, Rudolf A and Bouchard, Claude and Caulfield, W L Mark and Chambers, John C and Curhan, Gary and Cusi, Daniele and Eriksson, Johan and Ferrucci, Luigi and van Gilst, Wiek H and Glorioso, Nicola and de Graaf, Jacqueline and Groop, Leif and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Hu, Frank B and Huikuri, Heikki V and Hunter, David J and Iribarren, Carlos and Isomaa, Bo and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and van der Klauw, Melanie M and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kraft, Peter and Iacoviello, Licia and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lokki, Marja-Liisa L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Navis, Gerjan and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Poulter, Neil R and Qi, Lu and Raitakari, Olli T and Rimm, Eric B and Rioux, John D and Rizzi, Federica and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Sever, Peter S and Shields, Denis C and Shuldiner, Alan R and Sinisalo, Juha and Stanton, Alice V and Stolk, Ronald P and Strachan, David P and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tuomilehto, Jaako and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Virtamo, Jarmo and Viikari, Jorma and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Widen, Elisabeth and Cho, Yoon Shin and Olsen, Jesper V and Visscher, Peter M and Willer, Cristen and Franke, Lude and Erdmann, Jeanette and Thompson, John R and Pfeufer, Arne and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Ellinor, Patrick T and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Metspalu, Andres and Perola, Markus and Beckmann, Jacques S and Smith, George Davey and Stefansson, Kari and Wareham, Nicholas J and Munroe, Patricia B and Sibon, Ody C M and Milan, David J and Snieder, Harold and Samani, Nilesh J and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {6325, title = {Common variation in fatty acid metabolic genes and risk of incident sudden cardiac arrest.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {11}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Mar}, pages = {471-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: There is limited information on genetic factors associated with sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of common variation in genes in fatty acid pathways with SCA risk.

METHODS: We selected 85 candidate genes and 1155 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) tagging common variation in each gene. We investigated the SNP associations with SCA in a population-based case-control study. Cases (n = 2160) were from a repository of SCA in the greater Seattle area. Controls (n = 2615), frequency-matched on age and sex, were from the same area. We used linear logistic regression to examine SNP associations with SCA. We performed permutation-based p-min tests to account for multiple comparisons within each gene. The SNP associations with a corrected P value of <.05 were then examined in a meta-analysis of these SNP associations in 9 replication studies totaling 2129 SCA cases and 23,833 noncases.

RESULTS: Eight SNPs in or near 8 genes were associated with SCA risk in the discovery study, one of which was nominally significant in the replication phase (rs7737692, minor allele frequency 36\%, near the LPCAT1 gene). For each copy of the minor allele, rs7737692 was associated with 13\% lower SCA risk (95\% confidence interval -21\% to -5\%) in the discovery phase and 9\% lower SCA risk (95\% confidence interval -16\% to -1\%) in the replication phase.

CONCLUSIONS: While none of the associations reached significance with Bonferroni correction, a common genetic variant near LPCAT1, a gene involved in the remodeling of phospholipids, was nominally associated with incident SCA risk. Further study is needed to validate this observation.

}, keywords = {1-Acylglycerophosphocholine O-Acyltransferase, Aged, Algorithms, Alleles, Case-Control Studies, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Fatty Acids, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2014.01.008}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Johnson, Catherine O and Hesselson, Stephanie and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Sotoodhenia, Nona and McKnight, Barbara and Sitlani, Colleen M and Rea, Thomas D and King, Irena B and Kwok, Pui-Yan and Mak, Angel and Li, Guo and Brody, Jennifer and Larson, Eric and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Psaty, Bruce M and Huertas-Vazquez, Adriana and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Albert, Christine M and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Arking, Dan E and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Huikuri, Heikki V and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Wang, Ying A and Reinier, Kyndaron and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Pulit, Sara L and Brugada, Ramon and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Newton-Cheh, Chris H and Karhunen, Pekka J and Stricker, Bruno H and Goyette, Philippe and Rotter, Jerome I and Chugh, Sumeet S and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Jouven, Xavier and Siscovick, David S} } @article {6600, title = {Integrating genetic, transcriptional, and functional analyses to identify 5 novel genes for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {130}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Oct 7}, pages = {1225-35}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects >30 million individuals worldwide and is associated with an increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and death. AF is highly heritable, yet the genetic basis for the arrhythmia remains incompletely understood.

METHODS AND RESULTS: To identify new AF-related genes, we used a multifaceted approach, combining large-scale genotyping in 2 ethnically distinct populations, cis-eQTL (expression quantitative trait loci) mapping, and functional validation. Four novel loci were identified in individuals of European descent near the genes NEURL (rs12415501; relative risk [RR]=1.18; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.13-1.23; P=6.5{\texttimes}10(-16)), GJA1 (rs13216675; RR=1.10; 95\% CI, 1.06-1.14; P=2.2{\texttimes}10(-8)), TBX5 (rs10507248; RR=1.12; 95\% CI, 1.08-1.16; P=5.7{\texttimes}10(-11)), and CAND2 (rs4642101; RR=1.10; 95\% CI, 1.06-1.14; P=9.8{\texttimes}10(-9)). In Japanese, novel loci were identified near NEURL (rs6584555; RR=1.32; 95\% CI, 1.26-1.39; P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-25)) and CUX2 (rs6490029; RR=1.12; 95\% CI, 1.08-1.16; P=3.9{\texttimes}10(-9)). The top single-nucleotide polymorphisms or their proxies were identified as cis-eQTLs for the genes CAND2 (P=2.6{\texttimes}10(-19)), GJA1 (P=2.66{\texttimes}10(-6)), and TBX5 (P=1.36{\texttimes}10(-5)). Knockdown of the zebrafish orthologs of NEURL and CAND2 resulted in prolongation of the atrial action potential duration (17\% and 45\%, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: We have identified 5 novel loci for AF. Our results expand the diversity of genetic pathways implicated in AF and provide novel molecular targets for future biological and pharmacological investigation.

}, keywords = {Aged, Animals, Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosome Mapping, Connexin 43, Europe, Female, Gene Knockdown Techniques, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Japan, Male, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, Nuclear Proteins, Quantitative Trait Loci, Repressor Proteins, T-Box Domain Proteins, Transcription Factors, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, Zebrafish, Zebrafish Proteins}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.009892}, author = {Sinner, Moritz F and Tucker, Nathan R and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ozaki, Kouichi and Smith, J Gustav and Trompet, Stella and Bis, Joshua C and Lin, Honghuang and Chung, Mina K and Nielsen, Jonas B and Lubitz, Steven A and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Magnani, Jared W and Ye, Jiangchuan and Gollob, Michael H and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Lichtner, Peter and Peters, Annette and Dolmatova, Elena and Kubo, Michiaki and Smith, Jonathan D and Psaty, Bruce M and Smith, Nicholas L and Jukema, J Wouter and Chasman, Daniel I and Albert, Christine M and Ebana, Yusuke and Furukawa, Tetsushi and Macfarlane, Peter W and Harris, Tamara B and Darbar, Dawood and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Holst, Anders G and Svendsen, Jesper H and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Isobe, Mitsuaki and Malik, Rainer and Dichgans, Martin and Rosand, Jonathan and Van Wagoner, David R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Milan, David J and Melander, Olle and Heckbert, Susan R and Ford, Ian and Liu, Yongmei and Barnard, John and Olesen, Morten S and Stricker, Bruno H C and Tanaka, Toshihiro and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {6820, title = {Novel genetic markers associate with atrial fibrillation risk in Europeans and Japanese.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {63}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr 1}, pages = {1200-10}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to identify nonredundant atrial fibrillation (AF) genetic susceptibility signals and examine their cumulative relations with AF risk.

BACKGROUND: AF-associated loci span broad genomic regions that may contain multiple susceptibility signals. Whether multiple signals exist at AF loci has not been systematically explored.

METHODS: We performed association testing conditioned on the most significant, independently associated genetic markers at 9 established AF loci using 2 complementary techniques in 64,683 individuals of European ancestry (3,869 incident and 3,302 prevalent AF cases). Genetic risk scores were created and tested for association with AF in Europeans and an independent sample of 11,309 individuals of Japanese ancestry (7,916 prevalent AF cases).

RESULTS: We observed at least 4 distinct AF susceptibility signals on chromosome 4q25 upstream of PITX2, but not at the remaining 8 AF loci. A multilocus score comprised 12 genetic markers demonstrated an estimated 5-fold gradient in AF risk. We observed a similar spectrum of risk associated with these markers in Japanese. Regions containing AF signals on chromosome 4q25 displayed a greater degree of evolutionary conservation than the remainder of the locus, suggesting that they may tag regulatory elements.

CONCLUSIONS: The chromosome 4q25 AF locus is architecturally complex and harbors at least 4 AF susceptibility signals in individuals of European ancestry. Similar polygenic AF susceptibility exists between Europeans and Japanese. Future work is necessary to identify causal variants, determine mechanisms by which associated loci predispose to AF, and explore whether AF susceptibility signals classify individuals at risk for AF and related morbidity.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosome Mapping, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Markers, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Japan, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factors}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2013.12.015}, author = {Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lin, Honghuang and Arking, Dan E and Trompet, Stella and Li, Guo and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Chasman, Daniel I and Barnard, John and Kleber, Marcus E and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ozaki, Kouichi and Smith, Albert V and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Walter, Stefan and Agarwal, Sunil K and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Lin Y and Everett, Brendan M and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Mahida, Saagar and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kubo, Michiaki and Launer, Lenore J and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnani, Jared W and McKnight, Barbara and McManus, David D and Peters, Annette and Psaty, Bruce M and Rose, Lynda M and Rotter, Jerome I and Silbernagel, Guenther and Smith, Jonathan D and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stott, David J and Taylor, Kent D and Tomaschitz, Andreas and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Van Wagoner, David R and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Murabito, Joanne M and Sinner, Moritz F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Felix, Stephan B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Chung, Mina and Albert, Christine M and Stricker, Bruno H and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Heckbert, Susan R and Jukema, J Wouter and Alonso, Alvaro and Benjamin, Emelia J and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7595, title = {Genetic Interactions with Age, Sex, Body Mass Index, and Hypertension in Relation to Atrial Fibrillation: The AFGen Consortium.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {7}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep 12}, pages = {11303}, abstract = {

It is unclear whether genetic markers interact with risk factors to influence atrial fibrillation (AF) risk. We performed genome-wide interaction analyses between genetic variants and age, sex, hypertension, and body mass index in the AFGen Consortium. Study-specific results were combined using meta-analysis (88,383 individuals of European descent, including 7,292 with AF). Variants with nominal interaction associations in the discovery analysis were tested for association in four independent studies (131,441 individuals, including 5,722 with AF). In the discovery analysis, the AF risk associated with the minor rs6817105 allele (at the PITX2 locus) was greater among subjects <= 65 years of age than among those > 65 years (interaction p-value = 4.0 {\texttimes} 10-5). The interaction p-value exceeded genome-wide significance in combined discovery and replication analyses (interaction p-value = 1.7 {\texttimes} 10-8). We observed one genome-wide significant interaction with body mass index and several suggestive interactions with age, sex, and body mass index in the discovery analysis. However, none was replicated in the independent sample. Our findings suggest that the pathogenesis of AF may differ according to age in individuals of European descent, but we did not observe evidence of statistically significant genetic interactions with sex, body mass index, or hypertension on AF risk.

}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-017-09396-7}, author = {Weng, Lu-Chen and Lunetta, Kathryn L and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Smith, Albert Vernon and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Weeke, Peter E and Barnard, John and Bis, Joshua C and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Kleber, Marcus E and Martinsson, Andreas and Lin, Henry J and Rienstra, Michiel and Trompet, Stella and Krijthe, Bouwe P and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Klarin, Derek and Chasman, Daniel I and Sinner, Moritz F and Waldenberger, Melanie and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Alonso, Alvaro and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Teixeira, Pedro L and Denny, Joshua C and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Van Wagoner, David R and Smith, Jonathan D and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Taylor, Kent D and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Nikus, Kjell and Delgado, Graciela E and Melander, Olle and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Ellinor, Patrick T and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Verweij, Niek and Macfarlane, Peter and Ford, Ian and Heeringa, Jan and Franco, Oscar H and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Teumer, Alexander and Rose, Lynda M and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Arking, Dan E and Conen, David and Roden, Dan M and Chung, Mina K and Heckbert, Susan R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Smith, J Gustav and Rotter, Jerome I and van der Harst, Pim and Jukema, J Wouter and Stricker, Bruno H and Felix, Stephan B and Albert, Christine M and Lubitz, Steven A} } @article {7396, title = {Large-scale analyses of common and rare variants identify 12 new loci associated with atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jun}, pages = {946-952}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation affects more than 33 million people worldwide and increases the risk of stroke, heart failure, and death. Fourteen genetic loci have been associated with atrial fibrillation in European and Asian ancestry groups. To further define the genetic basis of atrial fibrillation, we performed large-scale, trans-ancestry meta-analyses of common and rare variant association studies. The genome-wide association studies (GWAS) included 17,931 individuals with atrial fibrillation and 115,142 referents; the exome-wide association studies (ExWAS) and rare variant association studies (RVAS) involved 22,346 cases and 132,086 referents. We identified 12 new genetic loci that exceeded genome-wide significance, implicating genes involved in cardiac electrical and structural remodeling. Our results nearly double the number of known genetic loci for atrial fibrillation, provide insights into the molecular basis of atrial fibrillation, and may facilitate the identification of new potential targets for drug discovery.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3843}, author = {Christophersen, Ingrid E and Rienstra, Michiel and Roselli, Carolina and Yin, Xiaoyan and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Barnard, John and Lin, Honghuang and Arking, Dan E and Smith, Albert V and Albert, Christine M and Chaffin, Mark and Tucker, Nathan R and Li, Molong and Klarin, Derek and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Low, Siew-Kee and Weeke, Peter E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Smith, J Gustav and Brody, Jennifer A and Niemeijer, Maartje N and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Trompet, Stella and Huffman, Jennifer and Gustafsson, Stefan and Schurmann, Claudia and Kleber, Marcus E and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Malik, Rainer and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Perez, Marco and Sinisalo, Juha and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Yao, Jie and Radmanesh, Farid and Weiss, Stefan and Teumer, Alexander and Choi, Seung Hoan and Weng, Lu-Chen and Clauss, Sebastian and Deo, Rajat and Rader, Daniel J and Shah, Svati H and Sun, Albert and Hopewell, Jemma C and Debette, Stephanie and Chauhan, Ganesh and Yang, Qiong and Worrall, Bradford B and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Hagemeijer, Yanick P and Verweij, Niek and Siland, Joylene E and Kubo, Michiaki and Smith, Jonathan D and Van Wagoner, David R and Bis, Joshua C and Perz, Siegfried and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Magnani, Jared W and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Haessler, Jeffrey and Bartz, Traci M and Waldenberger, Melanie and Lichtner, Peter and Arendt, Marina and Krieger, Jose E and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Risch, Lorenz and Mansur, Alfredo J and Peters, Annette and Smith, Blair H and Lind, Lars and Scott, Stuart A and Lu, Yingchang and Bottinger, Erwin B and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Wong, Jorge A and Huang, Jie and Eskola, Markku and Morris, Andrew P and Ford, Ian and Reiner, Alex P and Delgado, Graciela and Chen, Lin Y and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Sandhu, Roopinder K and Li, Man and Boerwinkle, Eric and Eisele, Lewin and Lannfelt, Lars and Rost, Natalia and Anderson, Christopher D and Taylor, Kent D and Campbell, Archie and Magnusson, Patrik K and Porteous, David and Hocking, Lynne J and Vlachopoulou, Efthymia and Pedersen, Nancy L and Nikus, Kjell and Orho-Melander, Marju and Hamsten, Anders and Heeringa, Jan and Denny, Joshua C and Kriebel, Jennifer and Darbar, Dawood and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Shaffer, Christian and Macfarlane, Peter W and Heilmann-Heimbach, Stefanie and Almgren, Peter and Huang, Paul L and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Franco, Oscar H and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and J{\"o}ckel, Karl-Heinz and Sinner, Moritz F and Lin, Henry J and Guo, Xiuqing and Dichgans, Martin and Ingelsson, Erik and Kooperberg, Charles and Melander, Olle and Loos, Ruth J F and Laurikka, Jari and Conen, David and Rosand, Jonathan and van der Harst, Pim and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Kathiresan, Sekar and Pereira, Alexandre and Jukema, J Wouter and Hayward, Caroline and Rotter, Jerome I and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Stricker, Bruno H and Chung, Mina K and Felix, Stephan B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Alonso, Alvaro and Roden, Dan M and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Chasman, Daniel I and Heckbert, Susan R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lubitz, Steven A and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7778, title = {A comprehensive evaluation of the genetic architecture of sudden cardiac arrest.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Aug 28}, abstract = {

Aims: Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) accounts for 10\% of adult mortality in Western populations. We aim to identify potential loci associated with SCA and to identify risk factors causally associated with SCA.

Methods and results: We carried out a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) for SCA (n = 3939 cases, 25~989 non-cases) to examine common variation genome-wide and in candidate arrhythmia genes. We also exploited Mendelian randomization (MR) methods using cross-trait multi-variant genetic risk score associations (GRSA) to assess causal relationships of 18 risk factors with SCA. No variants were associated with SCA at genome-wide significance, nor were common variants in candidate arrhythmia genes associated with SCA at nominal significance. Using cross-trait GRSA, we established genetic correlation between SCA and (i) coronary artery disease (CAD) and traditional CAD risk factors (blood pressure, lipids, and diabetes), (ii) height and BMI, and (iii) electrical instability traits (QT and atrial fibrillation), suggesting aetiologic roles for these traits in SCA risk.

Conclusions: Our findings show that a comprehensive approach to the genetic architecture of SCA can shed light on the determinants of a complex life-threatening condition with multiple influencing factors in the general population. The results of this genetic analysis, both positive and negative findings, have implications for evaluating the genetic architecture of patients with a family history of SCA, and for efforts to prevent SCA in high-risk populations and the general community.

}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/ehy474}, author = {Ashar, Foram N and Mitchell, Rebecca N and Albert, Christine M and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Brody, Jennifer A and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Moes, Anna and Meitinger, Thomas and Mak, Angel and Huikuri, Heikki and Junttila, M Juhani and Goyette, Philippe and Pulit, Sara L and Pazoki, Raha and Tanck, Michael W and Blom, Marieke T and Zhao, XiaoQing and Havulinna, Aki S and Jabbari, Reza and Glinge, Charlotte and Tragante, Vinicius and Escher, Stefan A and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Ehret, Georg and Coresh, Josef and Li, Man and Prineas, Ronald J and Franco, Oscar H and Kwok, Pui-Yan and Lumley, Thomas and Dumas, Florence and McKnight, Barbara and Rotter, Jerome I and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Heckbert, Susan R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Tardif, Jean-Claude and VanDenburgh, Martin and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Stricker, Bruno H C and de Bakker, Paul I W and Franks, Paul W and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Halushka, Marc K and Maleszewski, Joseph J and Tfelt-Hansen, Jacob and Engstr{\o}m, Thomas and Salomaa, Veikko and Virmani, Renu and Kolodgie, Frank and Wilde, Arthur A M and Tan, Hanno L and Bezzina, Connie R and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Rioux, John D and Jouven, Xavier and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Arking, Dan E and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {7811, title = {Multi-ethnic genome-wide association study for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep}, pages = {1225-1233}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects more than 33 million individuals worldwide and has a complex heritability. We conducted the largest meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for AF to date, consisting of more than half a million individuals, including 65,446 with AF. In total, we identified 97 loci significantly associated with AF, including 67 that were novel in a combined-ancestry analysis, and 3 that were novel in a European-specific analysis. We sought to identify AF-associated genes at the GWAS loci by performing RNA-sequencing and expression quantitative trait locus analyses in 101 left atrial samples, the most relevant tissue for AF. We also performed transcriptome-wide analyses that identified 57 AF-associated genes, 42 of which overlap with GWAS loci. The identified loci implicate genes enriched within cardiac developmental, electrophysiological, contractile and structural pathways. These results extend our understanding of the biological pathways underlying AF and may facilitate the development of therapeutics for AF.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0133-9}, author = {Roselli, Carolina and Chaffin, Mark D and Weng, Lu-Chen and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Ahlberg, Gustav and Albert, Christine M and Almgren, Peter and Alonso, Alvaro and Anderson, Christopher D and Aragam, Krishna G and Arking, Dan E and Barnard, John and Bartz, Traci M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Bis, Joshua C and Bloom, Heather L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin B and Brody, Jennifer A and Calkins, Hugh and Campbell, Archie and Cappola, Thomas P and Carlquist, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Lin Y and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Choi, Eue-Keun and Choi, Seung Hoan and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Chung, Mina K and Cole, John W and Conen, David and Cook, James and Crijns, Harry J and Cutler, Michael J and Damrauer, Scott M and Daniels, Brian R and Darbar, Dawood and Delgado, Graciela and Denny, Joshua C and Dichgans, Martin and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Dudink, Elton A and Dudley, Samuel C and Esa, Nada and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Eskola, Markku and Fatkin, Diane and Felix, Stephan B and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Grewal, Raji P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guo, Xiuqing and Gupta, Namrata and Gustafsson, Stefan and Gutmann, Rebecca and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Heckbert, Susan R and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Hocking, Lynne J and Hofman, Albert and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Huang, Jie and Huang, Paul L and Huffman, Jennifer and Ingelsson, Erik and Ipek, Esra Gucuk and Ito, Kaoru and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Johnson, Renee and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kane, John P and Kastrati, Adnan and Kathiresan, Sekar and Katschnig-Winter, Petra and Kavousi, Maryam and Kessler, Thorsten and Kietselaer, Bas L and Kirchhof, Paulus and Kleber, Marcus E and Knight, Stacey and Krieger, Jose E and Kubo, Michiaki and Launer, Lenore J and Laurikka, Jari and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Leineweber, Kirsten and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Li, Man and Lim, Hong Euy and Lin, Henry J and Lin, Honghuang and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and London, Barry and Loos, Ruth J F and Low, Siew-Kee and Lu, Yingchang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnusson, Patrik K and Mahajan, Anubha and Malik, Rainer and Mansur, Alfredo J and Marcus, Gregory M and Margolin, Lauren and Margulies, Kenneth B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McManus, David D and Melander, Olle and Mohanty, Sanghamitra and Montgomery, Jay A and Morley, Michael P and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Natale, Andrea and Nazarian, Saman and Neumann, Benjamin and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Niemeijer, Maartje N and Nikus, Kjell and Nilsson, Peter and Noordam, Raymond and Oellers, Heidi and Olesen, Morten S and Orho-Melander, Marju and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pak, Hui-Nam and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pera, Joanna and Pereira, Alexandre and Porteous, David and Psaty, Bruce M and Pulit, Sara L and Pullinger, Clive R and Rader, Daniel J and Refsgaard, Lena and Ribas{\'e}s, Marta and Ridker, Paul M and Rienstra, Michiel and Risch, Lorenz and Roden, Dan M and Rosand, Jonathan and Rosenberg, Michael A and Rost, Natalia and Rotter, Jerome I and Saba, Samir and Sandhu, Roopinder K and Schnabel, Renate B and Schramm, Katharina and Schunkert, Heribert and Schurman, Claudia and Scott, Stuart A and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Shaffer, Christian and Shah, Svati and Shalaby, Alaa A and Shim, Jaemin and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Siland, Joylene E and Sinisalo, Juha and Sinner, Moritz F and Slowik, Agnieszka and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Smith, J Gustav and Smith, Jonathan D and Smith, Nicholas L and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stricker, Bruno H and Sun, Albert and Sun, Han and Svendsen, Jesper H and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Tanriverdi, Kahraman and Taylor, Kent D and Teder-Laving, Maris and Teumer, Alexander and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Trompet, Stella and Tucker, Nathan R and Tveit, Arnljot and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van der Harst, Pim and Van Gelder, Isabelle C and Van Wagoner, David R and Verweij, Niek and Vlachopoulou, Efthymia and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wang, Biqi and Weeke, Peter E and Weijs, Bob and Weiss, Raul and Weiss, Stefan and Wells, Quinn S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wong, Jorge A and Woo, Daniel and Worrall, Bradford B and Yang, Pil-Sung and Yao, Jie and Yoneda, Zachary T and Zeller, Tanja and Zeng, Lingyao and Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7973, title = {Assessment of the Relationship Between Genetic Determinants of Thyroid Function and Atrial Fibrillation: A Mendelian Randomization Study.}, journal = {JAMA Cardiol}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jan 23}, abstract = {

Importance: Increased free thyroxine (FT4) and decreased thyrotropin are associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in observational studies, but direct involvement is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the potential direct involvement of thyroid traits on AF.

Design, Setting, and Participants: Study-level mendelian randomization (MR) included 11 studies, and summary-level MR included 55 114 AF cases and 482 295 referents, all of European ancestry.

Exposures: Genomewide significant variants were used as instruments for standardized FT4 and thyrotropin levels within the reference range, standardized triiodothyronine (FT3):FT4 ratio, hypothyroidism, standardized thyroid peroxidase antibody levels, and hyperthyroidism. Mendelian randomization used genetic risk scores in study-level analysis or individual single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 2-sample MR for the summary-level data.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Prevalent and incident AF.

Results: The study-level analysis included 7679 individuals with AF and 49 233 referents (mean age [standard error], 62 [3] years; 15 859 men [29.7\%]). In study-level random-effects meta-analysis, the pooled hazard ratio of FT4 levels (nanograms per deciliter) for incident AF was 1.55 (95\% CI, 1.09-2.20; P = .02; I2 = 76\%) and the pooled odds ratio (OR) for prevalent AF was 2.80 (95\% CI, 1.41-5.54; P = .003; I2 = 64\%) in multivariable-adjusted analyses. The FT4 genetic risk score was associated with an increase in FT4 by 0.082 SD (standard error, 0.007; P < .001) but not with incident AF (risk ratio, 0.84; 95\% CI, 0.62-1.14; P = .27) or prevalent AF (OR, 1.32; 95\% CI, 0.64-2.73; P = .46). Similarly, in summary-level inverse-variance weighted random-effects MR, gene-based FT4 within the reference range was not associated with AF (OR, 1.01; 95\% CI, 0.89-1.14; P = .88). However, gene-based increased FT3:FT4 ratio, increased thyrotropin within the reference range, and hypothyroidism were associated with AF with inverse-variance weighted random-effects OR of 1.33 (95\% CI, 1.08-1.63; P = .006), 0.88 (95\% CI, 0.84-0.92; P < .001), and 0.94 (95\% CI, 0.90-0.99; P = .009), respectively, and robust to tests of horizontal pleiotropy. However, the subset of hypothyroidism single-nucleotide polymorphisms involved in autoimmunity and thyroid peroxidase antibodies levels were not associated with AF. Gene-based hyperthyroidism was associated with AF with MR-Egger OR of 1.31 (95\% CI, 1.05-1.63; P = .02) with evidence of horizontal pleiotropy (P = .045).

Conclusions and Relevance: Genetically increased FT3:FT4 ratio and hyperthyroidism, but not FT4 within the reference range, were associated with increased AF, and increased thyrotropin within the reference range and hypothyroidism were associated with decreased AF, supporting a pathway involving the pituitary-thyroid-cardiac axis.

}, issn = {2380-6591}, doi = {10.1001/jamacardio.2018.4635}, author = {Ellervik, Christina and Roselli, Carolina and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Alonso, Alvaro and Pietzner, Maik and Sitlani, Collen M and Trompet, Stella and Arking, Dan E and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Guo, Xiuqing and Kleber, Marcus E and Lin, Henry J and Lin, Honghuang and Macfarlane, Peter and Selvin, Elizabeth and Shaffer, Christian and Smith, Albert V and Verweij, Niek and Weiss, Stefan and Cappola, Anne R and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Heckbert, Susan and Mooijaart, Simon and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Roden, Dan and Stott, David J and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Benjamin, Emelia J and Delgado, Graciela and Ellinor, Patrick and Homuth, Georg and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Jukema, Johan W and Lubitz, Steven A and Mora, Samia and Rienstra, Michiel and Rotter, Jerome I and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Taylor, Kent D and van der Harst, Pim and Albert, Christine M and Chasman, Daniel I} } @article {9042, title = {Assessing the contribution of rare variants to complex trait heritability from whole-genome sequence data.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {54}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Mar}, pages = {263-273}, abstract = {

Analyses of data from genome-wide association studies on unrelated individuals have shown that, for human traits and diseases, approximately one-third to two-thirds of heritability is captured by common SNPs. However, it is not known whether the remaining heritability is due to the imperfect tagging of causal variants by common SNPs, in particular whether the causal variants are rare, or whether it is overestimated due to bias in inference from pedigree data. Here we estimated heritability for height and body mass index (BMI) from whole-genome sequence data on 25,465 unrelated individuals of European ancestry. The estimated heritability was 0.68 (standard error 0.10) for height and 0.30 (standard error 0.10) for body mass index. Low minor allele frequency variants in low linkage disequilibrium (LD) with neighboring variants were enriched for heritability, to a greater extent for protein-altering variants, consistent with negative selection. Our results imply that rare variants, in particular those in regions of low linkage disequilibrium, are a major source of the still missing heritability of complex traits and disease.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-021-00997-7}, author = {Wainschtein, Pierrick and Jain, Deepti and Zheng, Zhili and Cupples, L Adrienne and Shadyab, Aladdin H and McKnight, Barbara and Shoemaker, Benjamin M and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Ching-Ti and Albert, Christine M and Roden, Dan and Chasman, Daniel I and Darbar, Dawood and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Arnett, Donna K and Regan, Elizabeth A and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Yanek, Lisa R and de Andrade, Mariza and Allison, Matthew A and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and Chung, Mina K and Fornage, Myriam and Chami, Nathalie and Smith, Nicholas L and Ellinor, Patrick T and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Mathias, Rasika A and Loos, Ruth J F and Rich, Stephen S and Lubitz, Steven A and Heckbert, Susan R and Redline, Susan and Guo, Xiuqing and Chen, Y -D Ida and Laurie, Cecelia A and Hernandez, Ryan D and McGarvey, Stephen T and Goddard, Michael E and Laurie, Cathy C and North, Kari E and Lange, Leslie A and Weir, Bruce S and Yengo, Loic and Yang, Jian and Visscher, Peter M} } @article {9109, title = {The Value of Rare Genetic Variation in the Prediction of Common Obesity in European Ancestry Populations.}, journal = {Front Endocrinol (Lausanne)}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022}, pages = {863893}, abstract = {

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) aggregate the effects of genetic variants across the genome and are used to predict risk of complex diseases, such as obesity. Current PRSs only include common variants (minor allele frequency (MAF) >=1\%), whereas the contribution of rare variants in PRSs to predict disease remains unknown. Here, we examine whether augmenting the standard common variant PRS (PRS) with a rare variant PRS (PRS) improves prediction of obesity. We used genome-wide genotyped and imputed data on 451,145 European-ancestry participants of the UK Biobank, as well as whole exome sequencing (WES) data on 184,385 participants. We performed single variant analyses (for both common and rare variants) and gene-based analyses (for rare variants) for association with BMI (kg/m), obesity (BMI >= 30 kg/m), and extreme obesity (BMI >= 40 kg/m). We built PRSs and PRSs using a range of methods (Clumping+Thresholding [C+T], PRS-CS, lassosum, gene-burden test). We selected the best-performing PRSs and assessed their performance in 36,757 European-ancestry unrelated participants with whole genome sequencing (WGS) data from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. The best-performing PRS explained 10.1\% of variation in BMI, and 18.3\% and 22.5\% of the susceptibility to obesity and extreme obesity, respectively, whereas the best-performing PRS explained 1.49\%, and 2.97\% and 3.68\%, respectively. The PRS was associated with an increased risk of obesity and extreme obesity (OR = 1.37 per SD, = 1.7x10; OR = 1.55 per SD, = 3.8x10), which was attenuated, after adjusting for PRS (OR = 1.08 per SD, = 9.8x10; OR= 1.09 per SD, = 0.02). When PRS and PRS are combined, the increase in explained variance attributed to PRS was small (incremental Nagelkerke R = 0.24\% for obesity and 0.51\% for extreme obesity). Consistently, combining PRS to PRS provided little improvement to the prediction of obesity (PRS AUC = 0.591; PRS AUC = 0.708; PRS AUC = 0.710). In summary, while rare variants show convincing association with BMI, obesity and extreme obesity, the PRS provides limited improvement over PRS in the prediction of obesity risk, based on these large populations.

}, keywords = {Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Obesity, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1664-2392}, doi = {10.3389/fendo.2022.863893}, author = {Wang, Zhe and Choi, Shing Wan and Chami, Nathalie and Boerwinkle, Eric and Fornage, Myriam and Redline, Susan and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Psaty, Bruce M and Kim, Wonji and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and Regan, Elizabeth A and Silverman, Edwin K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Kalyani, Rita R and Mathias, Rasika A and Yanek, Lisa R and Arnett, Donna K and Justice, Anne E and North, Kari E and Kaplan, Robert and Heckbert, Susan R and de Andrade, Mariza and Guo, Xiuqing and Lange, Leslie A and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A and Blangero, John and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Darbar, Dawood and Gladwin, Mark T and Albert, Christine M and Chasman, Daniel I and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Reiner, Alexander P and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {9412, title = {Multi-ancestry transcriptome-wide association analyses yield insights into tobacco use biology and drug repurposing.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Feb}, pages = {291-300}, abstract = {

Most transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) so far focus on European ancestry and lack diversity. To overcome this limitation, we aggregated genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics, whole-genome sequences and expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data from diverse ancestries. We developed a new approach, TESLA (multi-ancestry integrative study using an optimal linear combination of association statistics), to integrate an eQTL dataset with a multi-ancestry GWAS. By exploiting shared phenotypic effects between ancestries and accommodating potential effect heterogeneities, TESLA improves power over other TWAS methods. When applied to tobacco use phenotypes, TESLA identified 273 new genes, up to 55\% more compared with alternative TWAS methods. These hits and subsequent fine mapping using TESLA point to target genes with biological relevance. In silico drug-repurposing analyses highlight several drugs with known efficacy, including dextromethorphan and galantamine, and new drugs such as muscle relaxants that may be repurposed for treating nicotine addiction.

}, keywords = {Biology, Drug Repositioning, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Tobacco Use, Transcriptome}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01282-x}, author = {Chen, Fang and Wang, Xingyan and Jang, Seon-Kyeong and Quach, Bryan C and Weissenkampen, J Dylan and Khunsriraksakul, Chachrit and Yang, Lina and Sauteraud, Renan and Albert, Christine M and Allred, Nicholette D D and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Barr, R Graham and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Chasman, Daniel I and Chavan, Sameer and Chen, Yii-der I and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Correa, Adolfo and Curran, Joanne E and David, Sean P and Fuentes, Lisa de Las and Deka, Ranjan and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Faul, Jessica D and Garrett, Melanie E and Gharib, Sina A and Guo, Xiuqing and Hall, Michael E and Hawley, Nicola L and He, Jiang and Hobbs, Brian D and Hokanson, John E and Hsiung, Chao A and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Hyde, Thomas M and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jaffe, Andrew E and Johnson, Eric O and Kaplan, Robert and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kaufman, Joel D and Kelly, Tanika N and Kleinman, Joel E and Kooperberg, Charles and Lee, I-Te and Levy, Daniel and Lutz, Sharon M and Manichaikul, Ani W and Martin, Lisa W and Marx, Olivia and McGarvey, Stephen T and Minster, Ryan L and Moll, Matthew and Moussa, Karine A and Naseri, Take and North, Kari E and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Peralta, Juan M and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rafaels, Nicholas and Raffield, Laura M and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Schwartz, David A and Shadyab, Aladdin H and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Sun, Xiao and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn J and Watson, Harold and Weeks, Daniel E and Weir, David R and Yanek, Lisa R and Young, Kendra A and Young, Kristin L and Zhao, Wei and Hancock, Dana B and Jiang, Bibo and Vrieze, Scott and Liu, Dajiang J} } @article {9914, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide associations and polygenic risk prediction for atrial fibrillation in more than 180,000 cases.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {57}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar}, pages = {539-547}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm abnormality and is a leading cause of heart failure and stroke. This large-scale meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies increased the power to detect single-nucleotide variant associations and found more than 350 AF-associated genetic loci. We identified candidate genes related to muscle contractility, cardiac muscle development and cell-cell communication at 139 loci. Furthermore, we assayed chromatin accessibility using assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing and histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation in stem cell-derived atrial cardiomyocytes. We observed a marked increase in chromatin accessibility for our sentinel variants and prioritized genes in atrial cardiomyocytes. Finally, a polygenic risk score (PRS) based on our updated effect estimates improved AF risk prediction compared to the CHARGE-AF clinical risk score and a previously reported PRS for AF. The doubling of known risk loci will facilitate a greater understanding of the pathways underlying AF.

}, keywords = {Atrial Fibrillation, Chromatin, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Multifactorial Inheritance, Myocytes, Cardiac, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-024-02072-3}, author = {Roselli, Carolina and Surakka, Ida and Olesen, Morten S and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Marston, Nicholas A and Choi, Seung Hoan and Holm, Hilma and Chaffin, Mark and Gudbjartsson, Daniel and Hill, Matthew C and Aegisdottir, Hildur and Albert, Christine M and Alonso, Alvaro and Anderson, Christopher D and Arking, Dan E and Arnar, David O and Barnard, John and Benjamin, Emelia J and Braunwald, Eugene and Brumpton, Ben and Campbell, Archie and Chami, Nathalie and Chasman, Daniel I and Cho, Kelly and Choi, Eue-Keun and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Chung, Mina K and Conen, David and Crijns, Harry J and Cutler, Michael J and Czuba, Tomasz and Damrauer, Scott M and Dichgans, Martin and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Dudink, Elton and Duong, ThuyVy and Erikstrup, Christian and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fatkin, Diane and Faul, Jessica D and Ferreira, Manuel and Freitag, Daniel F and Ganesh, Santhi K and Gaziano, J Michael and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Ghouse, Jonas and Gieger, Christian and Giulianini, Franco and Graham, Sarah E and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guo, Xiuqing and Haggerty, Christopher and Hayward, Caroline and Heckbert, Susan R and Hveem, Kristian and Ito, Kaoru and Johnson, Renee and Jukema, J Wouter and Jurgens, Sean J and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Kane, John P and Kany, Shinwan and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kavousi, Maryam and Khurshid, Shaan and Kamanu, Frederick K and Kirchhof, Paulus and Kleber, Marcus E and Knight, Stacey and Komuro, Issei and Krieger, Jose E and Launer, Lenore J and Li, Dadong and Lin, Honghuang and Lin, Henry J and Loos, Ruth J F and Lotta, Luca and Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Malik, Rainer and Mantineo, Helene and Marcus, Gregory M and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McManus, David D and Melander, Olle and Melloni, Giorgio E M and Meyre, Pascal B and Miyazawa, Kazuo and Mohanty, Sanghamitra and Monfort, Laia M and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nafissi, Navid A and Natale, Andrea and Nazarian, Saman and Ostrowski, Sisse R and Pak, Hui-Nam and Pang, Shichao and Pedersen, Ole B and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pereira, Alexandre C and Pirruccello, James P and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Pullinger, Clive R and Rader, Daniel J and R{\"a}m{\"o}, Joel T and Ridker, Paul M and Rienstra, Michiel and Risch, Lorenz and Roden, Dan M and Rotter, Jerome I and Sabatine, Marc S and Schunkert, Heribert and Shah, Svati H and Shim, Jaemin and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Simonson, Bridget and Sinner, Moritz F and Smit, Roelof A J and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, J Gustav and Soliman, Elsayed Z and S{\o}rensen, Erik and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Strbian, Daniel and Stricker, Bruno H and Teder-Laving, Maris and Sun, Yan V and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Thorolfsdottir, Rosa B and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tveit, Arnljot and van der Harst, Pim and van Meurs, Joyce and Wang, Biqi and Weiss, Stefan and Wells, Quinn S and Weng, Lu-Chen and Wilson, Peter W and Xiao, Ling and Yang, Pil-Sung and Yao, Jie and Yoneda, Zachary T and Zeller, Tanja and Zeng, Lingyao and Zhao, Wei and Zhou, Xiang and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Ruff, Christian T and Bundgaard, Henning and Willer, Cristen and Stefansson, Kari and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {9907, title = {Sequencing in over 50,000 cases identifies coding and structural variation underlying atrial fibrillation risk.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {57}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar}, pages = {548-562}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a prevalent and morbid abnormality of the heart rhythm with a strong genetic component. Here, we meta-analyzed genome and exome sequencing data from 36 studies that included 52,416 AF cases and 277,762 controls. In burden tests of rare coding variation, we identified novel associations between AF and the genes MYBPC3, LMNA, PKP2, FAM189A2 and KDM5B. We further identified associations between AF and rare structural variants owing to deletions in CTNNA3 and duplications of GATA4. We broadly replicated our findings in independent samples from MyCode, deCODE and UK Biobank. Finally, we found that CRISPR knockout of KDM5B in stem-cell-derived atrial cardiomyocytes led to a shortening of the action potential duration and widespread transcriptomic dysregulation of genes relevant to atrial homeostasis and conduction. Our results highlight the contribution of rare coding and structural variants to AF, including genetic links between AF and cardiomyopathies, and expand our understanding of the rare variant architecture for this common arrhythmia.

}, keywords = {Atrial Fibrillation, Case-Control Studies, Exome Sequencing, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Myocytes, Cardiac, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-025-02074-9}, author = {Choi, Seung Hoan and Jurgens, Sean J and Xiao, Ling and Hill, Matthew C and Haggerty, Christopher M and Sveinbj{\"o}rnsson, Gar{\dh}ar and Morrill, Valerie N and Marston, Nicholas A and Weng, Lu-Chen and Pirruccello, James P and Arnar, David O and Gudbjartsson, Daniel Fannar and Mantineo, Helene and von Falkenhausen, Aenne S and Natale, Andrea and Tveit, Arnljot and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Roselli, Carolina and Van Wagoner, David R and Darbar, Dawood and Haase, Doreen and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Davogustto, Giovanni E and Jun, Goo and Calkins, Hugh and Anderson, Jeffrey L and Brody, Jennifer A and Halford, Jennifer L and Barnard, John and Hokanson, John E and Smith, Jonathan D and Bis, Joshua C and Young, Kendra and Johnson, Linda S B and Risch, Lorenz and Gula, Lorne J and Kwee, Lydia Coulter and Chaffin, Mark D and K{\"u}hne, Michael and Preuss, Michael and Gupta, Namrata and Nafissi, Navid A and Smith, Nicholas L and Nilsson, Peter M and van der Harst, Pim and Wells, Quinn S and Judy, Renae L and Schnabel, Renate B and Johnson, Renee and Smit, Roelof A J and Gabriel, Stacey and Knight, Stacey and Furukawa, Tetsushi and Blackwell, Thomas W and Nauffal, Victor and Wang, Xin and Min, Yuan-I and Yoneda, Zachary T and Laksman, Zachary W M and Bezzina, Connie R and Alonso, Alvaro and Psaty, Bruce M and Albert, Christine M and Arking, Dan E and Roden, Dan M and Chasman, Daniel I and Rader, Daniel J and Conen, David and McManus, David D and Fatkin, Diane and Benjamin, Emelia J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Marcus, Gregory M and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Smith, J Gustav and Roberts, Jason D and Raffield, Laura M and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Cho, Michael H and Cutler, Michael J and Rienstra, Michiel and Chung, Mina K and S Olesen, Morten and Sinner, Moritz F and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Kirchhof, Paulus and Loos, Ruth J F and Nazarian, Saman and Mohanty, Sanghamitra and Damrauer, Scott M and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Heckbert, Susan R and Redline, Susan and Shah, Svati H and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Ebana, Yusuke and Holm, Hilma and Stefansson, Kari and Ruff, Christian T and Sabatine, Marc S and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lubitz, Steven A and Ellinor, Patrick T} }