@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 {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} }