@article {7257, title = {Multiethnic Exome-Wide Association Study of Subclinical Atherosclerosis.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Nov 21}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: -The burden of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic individuals is heritable and associated with elevated risk of developing clinical coronary heart disease (CHD). We sought to identify genetic variants in protein-coding regions associated with subclinical atherosclerosis and the risk of subsequent CHD.

METHODS AND RESULTS: -We studied a total of 25,109 European ancestry and African-American participants with coronary artery calcification (CAC) measured by cardiac computed tomography and 52,869 with common carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) measured by ultrasonography within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Participants were genotyped for 247,870 DNA sequence variants (231,539 in exons) across the genome. A meta-analysis of exome-wide association studies was performed across cohorts for CAC and CIMT. APOB p.Arg3527Gln was associated with four-fold excess CAC (P = 3{\texttimes}10(-10)). The APOE ε2 allele (p.Arg176Cys) was associated with both 22.3\% reduced CAC (P = 1{\texttimes}10(-12)) and 1.4\% reduced CIMT (P = 4{\texttimes}10(-14)) in carriers compared with non-carriers. In secondary analyses conditioning on LDL cholesterol concentration, the ε2 protective association with CAC, although attenuated, remained strongly significant. Additionally, the presence of ε2 was associated with reduced risk for CHD (OR 0.77; P = 1{\texttimes}10(-11)).

CONCLUSIONS: -Exome-wide association meta-analysis demonstrates that protein-coding variants in APOB and APOE associate with subclinical atherosclerosis. APOE ε2 represents the first significant association for multiple subclinical atherosclerosis traits across multiple ethnicities as well as clinical CHD.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001572}, author = {Natarajan, Pradeep and Bis, Joshua C and Bielak, Lawrence F and Cox, Amanda J and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Feitosa, Mary F and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Isaacs, Aaron and Jhun, Min A and Kavousi, Maryam and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Marioni, Riccardo E and Schminke, Ulf and Stitziel, Nathan O and Tada, Hayato and van Setten, Jessica and Smith, Albert V and Vojinovic, Dina and Yanek, Lisa R and Yao, Jie and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Amin, Najaf and Baber, Usman and Borecki, Ingrid B and Carr, J Jeffrey and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cupples, L Adrienne and de Jong, Pim A and de Koning, Harry and de Vos, Bob D and Demirkan, Ayse and Fuster, Valentin and Franco, Oscar H and Goodarzi, Mark O and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and Heiss, Gerardo and Hoffmann, Udo and Hofman, Albert and I{\v s}gum, Ivana and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kral, Brian G and Launer, Lenore J and Massaro, Joseph and Mehran, Roxana and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Newman, Anne B and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Oudkerk, Matthijs and Pankow, James S and Peloso, Gina M and Post, Wendy and Province, Michael A and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Reilly, Dermot F and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rosendaal, Frits and Sartori, Samantha and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Trompet, Stella and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Dhananjay and van der Lugt, Aad and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Wassel, Christina L and Weiss, Stefan and Wojczynski, Mary K and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Deary, Ian J and Dehghan, Abbas and Felix, Stephan B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Mathias, Rasika and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Psaty, Bruce M and Rader, Daniel J and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kathiresan, Sekar and Peyser, Patricia A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} }