@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 {6149, title = {Targeted sequencing in candidate genes for atrial fibrillation: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Targeted Sequencing Study.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {11}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Mar}, pages = {452-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified common genetic variants that predispose to atrial fibrillation (AF). It is unclear whether rare and low-frequency variants in genes implicated by such GWAS confer additional risk of AF.

OBJECTIVE: To study the association of genetic variants with AF at GWAS top loci.

METHODS: In the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Targeted Sequencing Study, we selected and sequenced 77 target gene regions from GWAS loci of complex diseases or traits, including 4 genes hypothesized to be related to AF (PRRX1, CAV1, CAV2, and ZFHX3). Sequencing was performed in participants with (n = 948) and without (n = 3330) AF from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

RESULTS: One common variant (rs11265611; P = 1.70 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) intronic to IL6R (interleukin-6 receptor gene) was significantly associated with AF after Bonferroni correction (odds ratio 0.70; 95\% confidence interval 0.58-0.85). The variant was not genotyped or imputed by prior GWAS, but it is in linkage disequilibrium (r(2) = .69) with the single-nucleotide polymorphism, with the strongest association with AF so far at this locus (rs4845625). In the rare variant joint analysis, damaging variants within the PRRX1 region showed significant association with AF after Bonferroni correction (P = .01).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 1 common single-nucleotide polymorphism and 1 gene region that were significantly associated with AF. Future sequencing efforts with larger sample sizes and more comprehensive genome coverage are anticipated to identify additional AF-related variants.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Interleukin-6}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2013.11.012}, author = {Lin, Honghuang and Sinner, Moritz F and Brody, Jennifer A and Arking, Dan E and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Rienstra, Michiel and Lubitz, Steven A and Magnani, Jared W and Sotoodehnia, Nona and McKnight, Barbara and McManus, David D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Bis, Joshua C and Gibbs, Richard A and Muzny, Donna and Kovar, Christie L and Morrison, Alanna C and Gupta, Mayetri and Folsom, Aaron R and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Heckbert, Susan R and Alonso, Alvaro and Ellinor, Patrick T and Benjamin, Emelia J} } @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 {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 {8368, title = {Multi-ancestry GWAS of the electrocardiographic PR interval identifies 202 loci underlying cardiac conduction.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 May 21}, pages = {2542}, abstract = {

The electrocardiographic PR interval reflects atrioventricular conduction, and is associated with conduction abnormalities, pacemaker implantation, atrial fibrillation (AF), and cardiovascular mortality. Here we report a multi-ancestry (N = 293,051) genome-wide association meta-analysis for the PR interval, discovering 202 loci of which 141 have not previously been reported. Variants at identified loci increase the percentage of heritability explained, from 33.5\% to 62.6\%. We observe enrichment for cardiac muscle developmental/contractile and cytoskeletal genes, highlighting key regulation processes for atrioventricular conduction. Additionally, 8 loci not previously reported harbor genes underlying inherited arrhythmic syndromes and/or cardiomyopathies suggesting a role for these genes in cardiovascular pathology in the general population. We show that polygenic predisposition to PR interval duration is an endophenotype for cardiovascular disease, including distal conduction disease, AF, and atrioventricular pre-excitation. These findings advance our understanding of the polygenic basis of cardiac conduction, and the genetic relationship between PR interval duration and cardiovascular disease.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-15706-x}, author = {Ntalla, Ioanna and Weng, Lu-Chen and Cartwright, James H and Hall, Amelia Weber and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Tucker, Nathan R and Choi, Seung Hoan and Chaffin, Mark D and Roselli, Carolina and Barnes, Michael R and Mifsud, Borbala and Warren, Helen R and Hayward, Caroline and Marten, Jonathan and Cranley, James J and Concas, Maria Pina and Gasparini, Paolo and Boutin, Thibaud and Kolcic, Ivana and Polasek, Ozren and Rudan, Igor and Araujo, Nathalia M and Lima-Costa, Maria Fernanda and Ribeiro, Antonio Luiz P and Souza, Renan P and Tarazona-Santos, Eduardo and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Ingelsson, Erik and Mahajan, Anubha and Morris, Andrew P and del Greco M, Fabiola and Foco, Luisa and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Hicks, Andrew A and Cook, James P and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Nelson, Christopher P and Riaz, Muhammad B and Samani, Nilesh J and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Ulivi, Sheila and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mononen, Nina and Nikus, Kjell and Caulfield, Mark J and Dominiczak, Anna and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Montasser, May E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Ryan, Kathleen and Shuldiner, Alan R and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Conen, David and Risch, Lorenz and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Raitakari, Olli T and Barnes, Catriona L K and Campbell, Harry and Joshi, Peter K and Wilson, James F and Isaacs, Aaron and Kors, Jan A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Huang, Paul L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Albert V and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and Nadkarni, Girish N and Preuss, Michael H and Correa, Adolfo and Mei, Hao and Wilson, James and Meitinger, Thomas and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Timothy D and Rienstra, Michiel and van de Vegte, Yordi J and van der Harst, Pim and Verweij, Niek and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Schramm, Katharina and Sinner, Moritz F and Strauch, Konstantin and Cutler, Michael J and Fatkin, Diane and London, Barry and Olesen, Morten and Roden, Dan M and Benjamin Shoemaker, M and Gustav Smith, J and Biggs, Mary L and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Sotoodehnia, Nona and De Grandi, Alessandro and Fuchsberger, Christian and Pattaro, Cristian and Pramstaller, Peter P and Ford, Ian and Wouter Jukema, J and Macfarlane, Peter W and Trompet, Stella and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Felix, Stephan B and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Weiss, Stefan and Havulinna, Aki S and Jula, Antti and S{\"a}{\"a}ksj{\"a}rvi, Katri and Salomaa, Veikko and Guo, Xiuqing and Heckbert, Susan R and Lin, Henry J and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Yao, Jie and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Maan, Arie C and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Noordam, Raymond and Cucca, Francesco and Ding, Jun and Lakatta, Edward G and Qian, Yong and Tarasov, Kirill V and Levy, Daniel and Lin, Honghuang and Newton-Cheh, Christopher H and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Murray, Alison D and Porteous, David J and Smith, Blair H and Stricker, Bruno H and Uitterlinden, Andre and van den Berg, Marten E and Haessler, Jeffrey and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Peters, Ulrike and Reiner, Alexander P and Whitsel, Eric A and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ehret, Georg B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Avery, Christy L and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Kerr, Kathleen F and Laurie, Cathy C and Seyerle, Amanda A and Stilp, Adrienne and Assa, Solmaz and Abdullah Said, M and Yldau van der Ende, M and Lambiase, Pier D and Orini, Michele and Ramirez, Julia and Van Duijvenboden, Stefan and Arnar, David O and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Holm, Hilma and Sulem, Patrick and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorolfsdottir, Rosa B and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Benjamin, Emelia J and Tinker, Andrew and Stefansson, Kari and Ellinor, Patrick T and Jamshidi, Yalda and Lubitz, Steven A and Munroe, Patricia B} } @article {9387, title = {Aberrant activation of TCL1A promotes stem cell expansion in clonal haematopoiesis.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {616}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Apr}, pages = {755-763}, abstract = {

Mutations in a diverse set of driver genes increase the fitness of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), leading to clonal haematopoiesis. These lesions are precursors for blood cancers, but the basis of their fitness advantage remains largely unknown, partly owing to a paucity of large cohorts in which the clonal expansion rate has been assessed by longitudinal sampling. Here, to circumvent this limitation, we developed a method to infer the expansion rate from data from a single time point. We applied this method to 5,071 people with clonal haematopoiesis. A genome-wide association study revealed that a common inherited polymorphism in the TCL1A promoter was associated with a slower expansion rate in clonal haematopoiesis overall, but the effect varied by driver gene. Those carrying this protective allele exhibited markedly reduced growth rates or prevalence of clones with driver mutations in TET2, ASXL1, SF3B1 and SRSF2, but~this effect was not seen in~clones with~driver mutations in DNMT3A. TCL1A was not expressed in normal or DNMT3A-mutated HSCs, but the introduction of mutations in TET2 or ASXL1 led to the expression of TCL1A protein and the expansion of HSCs in vitro. The protective allele restricted TCL1A expression and expansion of mutant HSCs, as did experimental~knockdown of TCL1A expression. Forced expression of TCL1A promoted the expansion of human HSCs in vitro and mouse HSCs in vivo. Our results indicate that the fitness advantage of several commonly mutated driver genes in clonal haematopoiesis may be mediated by TCL1A activation.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Animals, Clonal Hematopoiesis, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hematopoiesis, Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Humans, Mice, Mutation, Promoter Regions, Genetic}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-023-05806-1}, author = {Weinstock, Joshua S and Gopakumar, Jayakrishnan and Burugula, Bala Bharathi and Uddin, Md Mesbah and Jahn, Nikolaus and Belk, Julia A and Bouzid, Hind and Daniel, Bence and Miao, Zhuang and Ly, Nghi and Mack, Taralynn M and Luna, Sofia E and Prothro, Katherine P and Mitchell, Shaneice R and Laurie, Cecelia A and Broome, Jai G and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Sinner, Moritz F and von Falkenhausen, Aenne S and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Shuldiner, Alan R and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Lewis, Joshua P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Barnes, Kathleen C and Chami, Nathalie and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J F and Fornage, Myriam and Hou, Lifang and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Redline, Susan and Cade, Brian E and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Silverman, Edwin K and Yun, Jeong H and Qiao, Dandi and Palmer, Nicholette D and Freedman, Barry I and Bowden, Donald W and Cho, Michael H and DeMeo, Dawn L and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Lewis C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Peyser, Patricia A and He, Jiang and Rienstra, Michiel and van der Harst, Pim and Kaplan, Robert and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Arnett, Donna K and Irvin, Marguerite R and Tiwari, Hemant and Cutler, Michael J and Knight, Stacey and Muhlestein, J Brent and Correa, Adolfo and Raffield, Laura M and Gao, Yan and de Andrade, Mariza and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Konkle, Barbara A and Johnsen, Jill M and Wheeler, Marsha M and Smith, J Gustav and Melander, Olle and Nilsson, Peter M and Custer, Brian S and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Curran, Joanne E and Blangero, John and McGarvey, Stephen and Williams, L Keoki and Xiao, Shujie and Yang, Mao and Gu, C Charles and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Lee, Wen-Jane and Marcus, Gregory M and Kane, John P and Pullinger, Clive R and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Darbar, Dawood and Roden, Dan M and Albert, Christine and Kooperberg, Charles and Zhou, Ying and Manson, JoAnn E and Desai, Pinkal and Johnson, Andrew D and Mathias, Rasika A and Blackwell, Thomas W and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Smith, Albert V and Kang, Hyun M and Satpathy, Ansuman T and Natarajan, Pradeep and Kitzman, Jacob O and Whitsel, Eric A and Reiner, Alexander P and Bick, Alexander G and Jaiswal, Siddhartha} }