@article {6691, title = {Exome sequencing identifies rare LDLR and APOA5 alleles conferring risk for myocardial infarction.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {518}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Feb 5}, pages = {102-6}, abstract = {

Myocardial infarction (MI), a leading cause of death around the world, displays a complex pattern of inheritance. When MI occurs early in life, genetic inheritance is a major component to risk. Previously, rare mutations in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) genes have been shown to contribute to MI risk in individual families, whereas common variants at more than 45 loci have been associated with MI risk in the population. Here we evaluate how rare mutations contribute to early-onset MI risk in the population. We sequenced the protein-coding regions of 9,793 genomes from patients with MI at an early age (<=50 years in males and <=60 years in females) along with MI-free controls. We identified two genes in which rare coding-sequence mutations were more frequent in MI cases versus controls at exome-wide significance. At low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 4.2-fold increased risk for MI; carriers of null alleles at LDLR were at even higher risk (13-fold difference). Approximately 2\% of early MI cases harbour a rare, damaging mutation in LDLR; this estimate is similar to one made more than 40 years ago using an analysis of total cholesterol. Among controls, about 1 in 217 carried an LDLR coding-sequence mutation and had plasma LDL cholesterol > 190~mg~dl(-1). At apolipoprotein A-V (APOA5), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 2.2-fold increased risk for MI. When compared with non-carriers, LDLR mutation carriers had higher plasma LDL cholesterol, whereas APOA5 mutation carriers had higher plasma triglycerides. Recent evidence has connected MI risk with coding-sequence mutations at two genes functionally related to APOA5, namely lipoprotein lipase and apolipoprotein C-III (refs 18, 19). Combined, these observations suggest that, as well as LDL cholesterol, disordered metabolism of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins contributes to MI risk.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Age of Onset, Alleles, Apolipoproteins A, Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Exome, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetics, Population, Heterozygote, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mutation, Myocardial Infarction, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Receptors, LDL, Triglycerides, United States}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature13917}, author = {Do, Ron and Stitziel, Nathan O and Won, Hong-Hee and J{\o}rgensen, Anders Berg and Duga, Stefano and Angelica Merlini, Pier and Kiezun, Adam and Farrall, Martin and Goel, Anuj and Zuk, Or and Guella, Illaria and Asselta, Rosanna and Lange, Leslie A and Peloso, Gina M and Auer, Paul L and Girelli, Domenico and Martinelli, Nicola and Farlow, Deborah N and DePristo, Mark A and Roberts, Robert and Stewart, Alexander F R and Saleheen, Danish and Danesh, John and Epstein, Stephen E and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Hovingh, G Kees and Kastelein, John J and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Erdmann, Jeanette and Shah, Svati H and Kraus, William E and Davies, Robert and Nikpay, Majid and Johansen, Christopher T and Wang, Jian and Hegele, Robert A and Hechter, Eliana and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Kleber, Marcus E and Huang, Jie and Johnson, Andrew D and Li, Mingyao and Burke, Greg L and Gross, Myron and Liu, Yongmei and Assimes, Themistocles L and Heiss, Gerardo and Lange, Ethan M and Folsom, Aaron R and Taylor, Herman A and Olivieri, Oliviero and Hamsten, Anders and Clarke, Robert and Reilly, Dermot F and Yin, Wu and Rivas, Manuel A and Donnelly, Peter and Rossouw, Jacques E and Psaty, Bruce M and Herrington, David M and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and Bamshad, Michael J and Tracy, Russell P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and Spertus, John A and Cresci, Sharon and Hartiala, Jaana and Tang, W H Wilson and Hazen, Stanley L and Allayee, Hooman and Reiner, Alex P and Carlson, Christopher S and Kooperberg, Charles and Jackson, Rebecca D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Lander, Eric S and Schwartz, Stephen M and Siscovick, David S and McPherson, Ruth and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Watkins, Hugh and Nickerson, Deborah A and Ardissino, Diego and Sunyaev, Shamil R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Altshuler, David and Gabriel, Stacey and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {7010, title = {Diagnostic Yield and Clinical Utility of Sequencing Familial Hypercholesterolemia Genes in Patients With Severe Hypercholesterolemia.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {67}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jun 7}, pages = {2578-89}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Approximately 7\% of American adults have severe hypercholesterolemia (untreated low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol~>=190 mg/dl), which may be due to familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). Lifelong LDL cholesterol elevations in FH mutation carriers may confer coronary artery disease (CAD) risk beyond that captured by~a~single LDL cholesterol measurement.

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the prevalence of an FH mutation among those with severe hypercholesterolemia and determined whether CAD risk varies according to mutation status beyond the observed LDL cholesterol level.

METHODS: Three genes causative for FH (LDLR, APOB, and PCSK9) were sequenced in 26,025 participants from 7 case-control studies (5,540 CAD case subjects, 8,577 CAD-free control subjects) and 5 prospective cohort studies (11,908 participants). FH mutations included loss-of-function variants in LDLR, missense mutations in LDLR predicted to be damaging, and variants linked to FH in ClinVar, a clinical genetics database.

RESULTS: Among 20,485 CAD-free control and prospective cohort participants, 1,386 (6.7\%) had LDL cholesterol >=190~mg/dl; of these, only 24 (1.7\%) carried an FH mutation. Within any stratum of observed LDL cholesterol, risk of CAD was higher among FH mutation carriers than noncarriers. Compared with a reference group with LDL cholesterol <130 mg/dl and no mutation, participants with LDL cholesterol~>=190 mg/dl and no FH mutation had a 6-fold higher risk for CAD (odds ratio: 6.0; 95\% confidence interval: 5.2 to 6.9), whereas those with both LDL cholesterol~>=190 mg/dl and~an FH mutation demonstrated a 22-fold increased risk (odds ratio: 22.3; 95\% confidence interval: 10.7 to 53.2). In an analysis of participants with serial lipid measurements over many years, FH mutation carriers had higher cumulative exposure to LDL cholesterol than noncarriers.

CONCLUSIONS: Among participants with LDL cholesterol~>=190 mg/dl, gene sequencing identified an FH mutation in~<2\%. However, for any observed LDL cholesterol, FH mutation carriers had substantially increased risk for CAD.

}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2016.03.520}, author = {Khera, Amit V and Won, Hong-Hee and Peloso, Gina M and Lawson, Kim S and Bartz, Traci M and Deng, Xuan and van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Emdin, Connor A and Bick, Alexander G and Morrison, Alanna C and Brody, Jennifer A and Gupta, Namrata and Nomura, Akihiro and Kessler, Thorsten and Duga, Stefano and Bis, Joshua C and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Psaty, Bruce and Rader, Daniel J and Danesh, John and Schunkert, Heribert and McPherson, Ruth and Farrall, Martin and Watkins, Hugh and Lander, Eric and Wilson, James G and Correa, Adolfo and Boerwinkle, Eric and Merlini, Piera Angelica and Ardissino, Diego and Saleheen, Danish and Gabriel, Stacey and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {8046, title = {No causal effects of serum urate levels on the risk of chronic kidney disease: A Mendelian randomization study.}, journal = {PLoS Med}, volume = {16}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 01}, pages = {e1002725}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown strong positive associations between serum urate (SU) levels and chronic kidney disease (CKD) risk; however, whether the relation is causal remains uncertain. We evaluate whether genetic data are consistent with a causal impact of SU level on the risk of CKD and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).

METHODS AND FINDINGS: We used Mendelian randomization (MR) methods to evaluate the presence of a causal effect. We used aggregated genome-wide association data (N = 110,347 for SU, N = 69,374 for gout, N = 133,413 for eGFR, N = 117,165 for CKD), electronic-medical-record-linked UK Biobank data (N = 335,212), and population-based cohorts (N = 13,425), all in individuals of European ancestry, for SU levels and CKD. Our MR analysis showed that SU has a causal effect on neither eGFR level nor CKD risk across all MR analyses (all P > 0.05). These null associations contrasted with our epidemiological association findings from the 4 population-based cohorts (change in eGFR level per 1-mg/dl [59.48 μmol/l] increase in SU: -1.99 ml/min/1.73 m2; 95\% CI -2.86 to -1.11; P = 8.08 {\texttimes} 10(-6); odds ratio [OR] for CKD: 1.48; 95\% CI 1.32 to 1.65; P = 1.52 {\texttimes} 10(-11)). In contrast, the same MR approaches showed that SU has a causal effect on the risk of gout (OR estimates ranging from 3.41 to 6.04 per 1-mg/dl increase in SU, all P < 10-3), which served as a positive control of our approach. Overall, our MR analysis had >99\% power to detect a causal effect of SU level on the risk of CKD of the same magnitude as the observed epidemiological association between SU and CKD. Limitations of this study include the lifelong effect of a genetic perturbation not being the same as an acute perturbation, the inability to study non-European populations, and some sample overlap between the datasets used in the study.

CONCLUSIONS: Evidence from our series of causal inference approaches using genetics does not support a causal effect of SU level on eGFR level or CKD risk. Reducing SU levels is unlikely to reduce the risk of CKD development.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Sex Factors, Uric Acid, Young Adult}, issn = {1549-1676}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pmed.1002725}, author = {Jordan, Daniel M and Choi, Hyon K and Verbanck, Marie and Topless, Ruth and Won, Hong-Hee and Nadkarni, Girish and Merriman, Tony R and Do, Ron} }