@article {6072, title = {Genome-wide association study of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e54232}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Mild retinopathy (microaneurysms or dot-blot hemorrhages) is observed in persons without diabetes or hypertension and may reflect microvascular disease in other organs. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of mild retinopathy in persons without diabetes.

METHODS: A working group agreed on phenotype harmonization, covariate selection and analytic plans for within-cohort GWAS. An inverse-variance weighted fixed effects meta-analysis was performed with GWAS results from six cohorts of 19,411 Caucasians. The primary analysis included individuals without diabetes and secondary analyses were stratified by hypertension status. We also singled out the results from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously shown to be associated with diabetes and hypertension, the two most common causes of retinopathy.

RESULTS: No SNPs reached genome-wide significance in the primary analysis or the secondary analysis of participants with hypertension. SNP, rs12155400, in the histone deacetylase 9 gene (HDAC9) on chromosome 7, was associated with retinopathy in analysis of participants without hypertension, -1.3{\textpm}0.23 (beta {\textpm} standard error), p = 6.6{\texttimes}10(-9). Evidence suggests this was a false positive finding. The minor allele frequency was low (\~{}2\%), the quality of the imputation was moderate (r(2) \~{}0.7), and no other common variants in the HDAC9 gene were associated with the outcome. SNPs found to be associated with diabetes and hypertension in other GWAS were not associated with retinopathy in persons without diabetes or in subgroups with or without hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS: This GWAS of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes showed little evidence of genetic associations. Further studies are needed to identify genes associated with these signs in order to help unravel novel pathways and determinants of microvascular diseases.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Histone Deacetylases, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Repressor Proteins, Retinal Diseases}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0054232}, author = {Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Li, Xiaohui and Cotch, Mary Frances and Ikram, M Kamran and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Jonasson, Fridbert and Klein, Barbara E K and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Albert Vernon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cheung, Ning and Hewitt, Alex W and Liew, Gerald and Mitchell, Paul and Wang, Jie Jin and Attia, John and Scott, Rodney and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Taylor, Kent and Hofman, Albert and de Jong, Paulus T V M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Tay, Wan-Ting and Teo, Yik Ying and Seielstad, Mark and Liu, Jianjun and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Saw, Seang-Mei and Aung, Tin and Ganesh, Santhi K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nalls, Mike A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kuo, Jane Z and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Klein, Ronald and Siscovick, David S and Rotter, Jerome I and Tai, E Shong and Vingerling, Johannes and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {6684, title = {Genome-wide studies of verbal declarative memory in nondemented older people: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium.}, journal = {Biol Psychiatry}, volume = {77}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr 15}, pages = {749-63}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Memory performance in older persons can reflect genetic influences on cognitive function and dementing processes. We aimed to identify genetic contributions to verbal declarative memory in a community setting.

METHODS: We conducted genome-wide association studies for paragraph or word list delayed recall in 19 cohorts from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium, comprising 29,076 dementia- and stroke-free individuals of European descent, aged >=45 years. Replication of suggestive associations (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) was sought in 10,617 participants of European descent, 3811 African-Americans, and 1561 young adults.

RESULTS: rs4420638, near APOE, was associated with poorer delayed recall performance in discovery (p = 5.57 {\texttimes} 10(-10)) and replication cohorts (p = 5.65 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). This association was stronger for paragraph than word list delayed recall and in the oldest persons. Two associations with specific tests, in subsets of the total sample, reached genome-wide significance in combined analyses of discovery and replication (rs11074779 [HS3ST4], p = 3.11 {\texttimes} 10(-8), and rs6813517 [SPOCK3], p = 2.58 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) near genes involved in immune response. A genetic score combining 58 independent suggestive memory risk variants was associated with increasing Alzheimer disease pathology in 725 autopsy samples. Association of memory risk loci with gene expression in 138 human hippocampus samples showed cis-associations with WDR48 and CLDN5, both related to ubiquitin metabolism.

CONCLUSIONS: This largest study to date exploring the genetics of memory function in ~40,000 older individuals revealed genome-wide associations and suggested an involvement of immune and ubiquitin pathways.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Apolipoproteins E, Claudin-5, Cohort Studies, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Memory Disorders, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Proteoglycans, Regression Analysis, Sulfotransferases, Verbal Learning}, issn = {1873-2402}, doi = {10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.08.027}, author = {Debette, Stephanie and Ibrahim Verbaas, Carla A and Bressler, Jan and Schuur, Maaike and Smith, Albert and Bis, Joshua C and Davies, Gail and Wolf, Christiane and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Chibnik, Lori B and Yang, Qiong and DeStefano, Anita L and de Quervain, Dominique J F and Srikanth, Velandai and Lahti, Jari and Grabe, Hans J and Smith, Jennifer A and Priebe, Lutz and Yu, Lei and Karbalai, Nazanin and Hayward, Caroline and Wilson, James F and Campbell, Harry and Petrovic, Katja and Fornage, Myriam and Chauhan, Ganesh and Yeo, Robin and Boxall, Ruth and Becker, James and Stegle, Oliver and Mather, Karen A and Chouraki, Vincent and Sun, Qi and Rose, Lynda M and Resnick, Susan and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Kirin, Mirna and Wright, Alan F and Jonsdottir, Maria K and Au, Rhoda and Becker, Albert and Amin, Najaf and Nalls, Mike A and Turner, Stephen T and Kardia, Sharon L R and Oostra, Ben and Windham, Gwen and Coker, Laura H and Zhao, Wei and Knopman, David S and Heiss, Gerardo and Griswold, Michael E and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Vitart, Veronique and Hastie, Nicholas D and Zgaga, Lina and Rudan, Igor and Polasek, Ozren and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Schofield, Peter and Choi, Seung Hoan and Tanaka, Toshiko and An, Yang and Perry, Rodney T and Kennedy, Richard E and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Wang, Jing and Wadley, Virginia G and Liewald, David C and Ridker, Paul M and Gow, Alan J and Pattie, Alison and Starr, John M and Porteous, David and Liu, Xuan and Thomson, Russell and Armstrong, Nicola J and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Assareh, Arezoo A and Kochan, Nicole A and Widen, Elisabeth and Palotie, Aarno and Hsieh, Yi-Chen and Eriksson, Johan G and Vogler, Christian and van Swieten, John C and Shulman, Joshua M and Beiser, Alexa and Rotter, Jerome and Schmidt, Carsten O and Hoffmann, Wolfgang and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Attia, John and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Amouyel, Philippe and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Amieva, H{\'e}l{\`e}ne and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Garcia, Melissa and Wolf, Philip A and Hofman, Albert and Longstreth, W T and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and DeJager, Philip L and Sachdev, Perminder S and Schmidt, Reinhold and Breteler, Monique M B and Teumer, Alexander and Lopez, Oscar L and Cichon, Sven and Chasman, Daniel I and Grodstein, Francine and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Tzourio, Christophe and Papassotiropoulos, Andreas and Bennett, David A and Ikram, M Arfan and Deary, Ian J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Launer, Lenore and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Seshadri, Sudha and Mosley, Thomas H} } @article {6809, title = {Plasma Levels of Soluble Interleukin-2 Receptor α: Associations With Clinical Cardiovascular Events and Genome-Wide Association Scan.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {35}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct}, pages = {2246-53}, abstract = {

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

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

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

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Age Distribution, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Incidence, Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Sex Distribution, Survival Analysis}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/ATVBAHA.115.305289}, author = {Durda, Peter and Sabourin, Jeremy and Lange, Ethan M and Nalls, Mike A and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Jenny, Nancy Swords and Li, Jin and Walston, Jeremy and Harris, Tamara B and Psaty, Bruce M and Valdar, William and Liu, Yongmei and Cushman, Mary and Reiner, Alex P and Tracy, Russell P and Lange, Leslie A} } @article {7976, title = {Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 01 22}, pages = {376}, abstract = {

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol-increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Brazil, Calcium-Binding Proteins, Cholesterol, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exercise, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Hispanic Americans, Humans, LIM-Homeodomain Proteins, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Male, Membrane Proteins, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Transcription Factors, Triglycerides, Young Adult}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-08008-w}, author = {Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Bentley, Amy R and Noordam, Raymond and Sung, Yun Ju and Schwander, Karen and Winkler, Thomas W and Jakupovi{\'c}, Hermina and Chasman, Daniel I and Manning, Alisa and Ntalla, Ioanna and Aschard, Hugues and Brown, Michael R and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Vojinovic, Dina and Aslibekyan, Stella and Feitosa, Mary F and Kho, Minjung and Musani, Solomon K and Richard, Melissa and Wang, Heming and Wang, Zhe and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Campbell, Archie and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Fisher, Virginia and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Li, Changwei and Lohman, Kurt K and Marten, Jonathan and Sim, Xueling and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Alver, Maris and Amini, Marzyeh and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Evangelou, Evangelos and Gao, Chuan and Graff, Mariaelisa and Harris, Sarah E and He, Meian and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and Zhao, Jing Hua and Kraja, Aldi T and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nolte, Ilja M and Rauramaa, Rainer and Riaz, Muhammad and Robino, Antonietta and Rueedi, Rico and Stringham, Heather M and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Verweij, Niek and Ware, Erin B and Wen, Wanqing and Li, Xiaoyin and Yanek, Lisa R and Amin, Najaf and Arnett, Donna K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brumat, Marco and Cade, Brian and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Concas, Maria Pina and Connell, John and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and de Vries, Paul S and Demirkan, Ayse and Ding, Jingzhong and Eaton, Charles B and Faul, Jessica D and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gabriel, Kelley P and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Giulianini, Franco and Gu, Chi Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Harris, Tamara B and He, Jiang and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hunt, Steven C and Ikram, M Arfan and Jonas, Jost B and Koh, Woon-Puay and Komulainen, Pirjo and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Kuusisto, Johanna and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Leander, Karin and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lewis, Cora E and Liang, Jingjing and Liu, Jianjun and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Manichaikul, Ani and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mohlke, Karen L and Mosley, Thomas H and Murray, Alison D and Nalls, Mike A and Nang, Ei-Ei Khaing and Nelson, Christopher P and Nona, Sotoodehnia and Norris, Jill M and Nwuba, Chiamaka Vivian and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and Palmer, Nicholette D and Papanicolau, George J and Pazoki, Raha and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Poveda, Alaitz and Raitakari, Olli T and Rich, Stephen S and Risch, Neil and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rudan, Igor and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, Robert A and Sidney, Stephen S and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Sofer, Tamar and Starr, John M and Sternfeld, Barbara and Strauch, Konstantin and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Tsai, Michael Y and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van der Ende, M Yldau and van Heemst, Diana and Voortman, Trudy and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wennberg, Patrik and Wilson, Gregory and Xiang, Yong-Bing and Yao, Jie and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and de Faire, Ulf and Deary, Ian J and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Samani, Nilesh J and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Vollenweider, Peter and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wang, Ya X and Wareham, Nicholas J and Weir, David R and Wu, Tangchun and Zheng, Wei and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Evans, Michele K and Franks, Paul W and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hayward, Caroline and Horta, Bernardo L and Kelly, Tanika N and Liu, Yongmei and North, Kari E and Pereira, Alexandre C and Ridker, Paul M and Tai, E Shyong and van Dam, Rob M and Fox, Ervin R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Ching-Ti and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Province, Michael A and Redline, Susan and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Rotter, Jerome I and Kooperberg, Charles B and Gauderman, W James and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Munroe, Patricia B and Fornage, Myriam and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rotimi, Charles N and Morrison, Alanna C and Rao, Dabeeru C and Loos, Ruth J F} }