@article {6632, title = {Genome-wide association study of cardiac structure and systolic function in African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Feb}, pages = {37-46}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Using data from 4 community-based cohorts of African Americans, we tested the association between genome-wide markers (single-nucleotide polymorphisms) and cardiac phenotypes in the Candidate-gene Association Resource study.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Among 6765 African Americans, we related age, sex, height, and weight-adjusted residuals for 9 cardiac phenotypes (assessed by echocardiogram or magnetic resonance imaging) to 2.5 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms genotyped using Genome-wide Affymetrix Human SNP Array 6.0 (Affy6.0) and the remainder imputed. Within the cohort, genome-wide association analysis was conducted, followed by meta-analysis across cohorts using inverse variance weights (genome-wide significance threshold=4.0 {\texttimes}10(-7)). Supplementary pathway analysis was performed. We attempted replication in 3 smaller cohorts of African ancestry and tested lookups in 1 consortium of European ancestry (EchoGEN). Across the 9 phenotypes, variants in 4 genetic loci reached genome-wide significance: rs4552931 in UBE2V2 (P=1.43{\texttimes}10(-7)) for left ventricular mass, rs7213314 in WIPI1 (P=1.68{\texttimes}10(-7)) for left ventricular internal diastolic diameter, rs1571099 in PPAPDC1A (P=2.57{\texttimes}10(-8)) for interventricular septal wall thickness, and rs9530176 in KLF5 (P=4.02{\texttimes}10(-7)) for ejection fraction. Associated variants were enriched in 3 signaling pathways involved in cardiac remodeling. None of the 4 loci replicated in cohorts of African ancestry was confirmed in lookups in EchoGEN.

CONCLUSIONS: In the largest genome-wide association study of cardiac structure and function to date in African Americans, we identified 4 genetic loci related to left ventricular mass, interventricular septal wall thickness, left ventricular internal diastolic diameter, and ejection fraction, which reached genome-wide significance. Replication results suggest that these loci may be unique to individuals of African ancestry. Additional large-scale studies are warranted for these complex phenotypes.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Cohort Studies, Diastole, Echocardiography, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Systole}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.111.962365}, author = {Fox, Ervin R and Musani, Solomon K and Barbalic, Maja and Lin, Honghuang and Yu, Bing and Ogunyankin, Kofo O and Smith, Nicholas L and Kutlar, Abdullah and Glazer, Nicole L and Post, Wendy S and Paltoo, Dina N and Dries, Daniel L and Farlow, Deborah N and Duarte, Christine W and Kardia, Sharon L and Meyers, Kristin J and Sun, Yan V and Arnett, Donna K and Patki, Amit A and Sha, Jin and Cui, Xiangqui and Samdarshi, Tandaw E and Penman, Alan D and Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bluemke, David A and Morrison, Alanna C and Heiss, Gerardo and Carr, J Jeffrey and Tracy, Russell P and Mosley, Thomas H and Taylor, Herman A and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Cappola, Thomas P and Vasan, Ramachandran S} } @article {6547, title = {Sequencing of 2 subclinical atherosclerosis candidate regions in 3669 individuals: Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {359-64}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis, the precursor to coronary heart disease and stroke, is characterized by an accumulation of fatty cells in the arterial intimal-medial layers. Common carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and plaque are subclinical atherosclerosis measures that predict cardiovascular disease events. Previously, genome-wide association studies demonstrated evidence for association with cIMT (SLC17A4) and plaque (PIK3CG).

METHODS AND RESULTS: We sequenced 120 kb around SLC17A4 (6p22.2) and 251 kb around PIK3CG (7q22.3) among 3669 European ancestry participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), and Framingham Heart Study (FHS) in Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Primary analyses focused on 438 common variants (minor allele frequency >=1\%), which were independently meta-analyzed. A 3{\textquoteright} untranslated region CCDC71L variant (rs2286149), upstream from PIK3CG, was the most significant finding in cIMT (P=0.00033) and plaque (P=0.0004) analyses. A SLC17A4 intronic variant was also associated with cIMT (P=0.008). Both were in low linkage disequilibrium with the genome-wide association study single nucleotide polymorphisms. Gene-based tests including T1 count and sequence kernel association test for rare variants (minor allele frequency <1\%) did not yield statistically significant associations. However, we observed nominal associations for rare variants in CCDC71L and SLC17A3 with cIMT and of the entire 7q22 region with plaque (P=0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Common and rare variants in PIK3CG and SLC17A4 regions demonstrated modest association with subclinical atherosclerosis traits. Although not conclusive, these findings may help to understand the genetic architecture of regions previously implicated by genome-wide association studies and identify variants within these regions for further investigation in larger samples.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Atherosclerosis, Class Ib Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Sodium-Phosphate Cotransporter Proteins, Type I}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000116}, author = {Bis, Joshua C and White, Charles C and Franceschini, Nora and Brody, Jennifer and Zhang, Xiaoling and Muzny, Donna and Santibanez, Jireh and Gibbs, Richard and Liu, Xiaoming and Lin, Honghuang and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and North, Kari E and Cupples, L Adrienne and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {6583, title = {Sequencing of SCN5A identifies rare and common variants associated with cardiac conduction: Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {365-73}, abstract = {

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

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

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

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Conduction System, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, NAV1.5 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000098}, author = {Magnani, Jared W and Brody, Jennifer A and Prins, Bram P and Arking, Dan E and Lin, Honghuang and Yin, Xiaoyan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Morrison, Alanna C and Zhang, Feng and Spector, Tim D and Alonso, Alvaro and Bis, Joshua C and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Sitlani, Colleen M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Lubitz, Steven A and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Pulit, Sara L and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ellinor, Patrick T and Benjamin, Emelia J and Muzny, Donna M and Gibbs, Richard A and Santibanez, Jireh and Taylor, Herman A and Rotter, Jerome I and Lange, Leslie A and Psaty, Bruce M and Jackson, Rebecca and Rich, Stephen S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Jamshidi, Yalda and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {6578, title = {Strategies to design and analyze targeted sequencing data: cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {335-43}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies have identified thousands of genetic variants that influence a variety of diseases and health-related quantitative traits. However, the causal variants underlying the majority of genetic associations remain unknown. Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study aims to follow up genome-wide association study signals and identify novel associations of the allelic spectrum of identified variants with cardiovascular-related traits.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The study included 4231 participants from 3 CHARGE cohorts: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, and the Framingham Heart Study. We used a case-cohort design in which we selected both a random sample of participants and participants with extreme phenotypes for each of 14 traits. We sequenced and analyzed 77 genomic loci, which had previously been associated with >=1 of 14 phenotypes. A total of 52 736 variants were characterized by sequencing and passed our stringent quality control criteria. For common variants (minor allele frequency >=1\%), we performed unweighted regression analyses to obtain P values for associations and weighted regression analyses to obtain effect estimates that accounted for the sampling design. For rare variants, we applied 2 approaches: collapsed aggregate statistics and joint analysis of variants using the sequence kernel association test.

CONCLUSIONS: We sequenced 77 genomic loci in participants from 3 cohorts. We established a set of filters to identify high-quality variants and implemented statistical and bioinformatics strategies to analyze the sequence data and identify potentially functional variants within genome-wide association study loci.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Research Design, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000350}, author = {Lin, Honghuang and Wang, Min and Brody, Jennifer A and Bis, Joshua C and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Rice, Kenneth M and Sitlani, Colleen M and Reid, Jeffrey G and Bressler, Jan and Liu, Xiaoming and Davis, Brian C and Johnson, Andrew D and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Kovar, Christie L and Dinh, Huyen and Wu, Yuanqing and Newsham, Irene and Chen, Han and Broka, Andi and DeStefano, Anita L and Gupta, Mayetri and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Liu, Ching-Ti and White, Charles C and Xing, Chuanhua and Zhou, Yanhua and Benjamin, Emelia J and Schnabel, Renate B and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Muzny, Donna M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Morrison, Alanna C and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {6597, title = {Association of exome sequences with plasma C-reactive protein levels in >9000 participants.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {24}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan 15}, pages = {559-71}, abstract = {

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

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