Genetics


Prevailing Perspective of Processed/Red Meat and CAD/T2D Challenged

A Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis did not find sufficient evidence to support a causal relationship between red/processed meat consumption and cardiovascular disease (CAD), hypertension, stroke, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). The analysis used data of publicly published genome-wide association studies. The inverse-variance weighted analyses revealed no causal association between the […]


Genetic Association of Lipid Metabolism with Aortic Aneurysms

A mendelian randomization (MR) study provides causal evidence for the genetic association of lipid metabolism with aortic aneurysms. By using expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) related to drug-target genes and SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) located near or within the drug-target loci associated with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) as proxies for […]


Genetic Risks in Sodium and Potassium Informative to High BP Interventions

A cross-sectional, observational study of 2 genotyped cohorts in Australia and UK suggested that sodium was associated with larger hypertensive effects for individuals with higher blood pressure (BP) genetic risk in pathways related to sodium and potassium biology. Both genetic risk and urinary electrolytes independently correlated with BP in the […]


Different Genetical and Environmental Contributions in Obesity to CVD

National cohort data from Swedish twins indicate that genetically related obesity is not associated with negative health outcomes to the same extent as environmentally related obesity. A total of 17,988 twins born before 1959 were enrolled in sub-studies of the Swedish Twin Registry between 1984 and 2010 and followed on […]


Prevalence and Clinical Significance of DNA Variants Predisposing to Cardiomyopathy

A genetic association study indicates that 0.7% of participants harbor a pathogenic variant related to inherited cardiomyopathy and are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality. The study included 9667 US participants (mean age 54.0 years; 43.8% women; 27.5% African and 72.5% European ancestry) and 49 744 UK […]


Healthy Lifestyle May Lower Genetic Cancer Risk

The analysis of genetic and lifestyle factors with cancer incidence in a general-population cohort suggested that genetic cancer risk may be reduced by adopting a healthy lifestyle. An incidence-weighted overall cancer polygenic risk score (CPRS) was constructed based on 20 cancer site-specific polygenic risk scores. Lifestyle was determined according to […]


BD’s Polygenic Genetic Architecture

A genome-wide study of bipolar disorder (BD) revealed an extensive polygenic genetic architecture of the disease, implicate brain calcium channels and neurotransmitter function in BD etiology, and confirmed that BD is part of a spectrum of highly correlated psychiatric and mood disorders. The study included 20,352 cases and 31,358 controls […]


Complex Genetic Roots of Depression

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of depression identified 102 independent variants, 269 genes, and 15 genesets associated with depression, including both genes and gene pathways associated with synaptic structure and neurotransmission. The analysis included 807,553 individuals (246,363 cases and 561,190 controls). An enrichment analysis provided further evidence of the […]


Genetics May Influence the Effects of Vitamin E

A US study suggested that genetic variations may be at play with vitamin E, increasing cancer risk in some individuals while decreasing risk for others. Multiple pathways may link the enzyme catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) to the vitamin E supplement, alpha-tocopherol, and cancer. The most extensively studied variant in COMT comes in […]


Lifestyle, Genetics and Stroke

An UK prospective population based cohort study found that genetic and lifestyle factors were independently associated with risk of incident stroke. The study recruited 306 473 men and women, aged 40-73 years, between 2006 and 2010. During a median follow-up of 7.1 years (2 138 443 person years), 2077 incident strokes (1541 ischemic […]