Gene-centric meta-analysis in 87,736 individuals of European ancestry identifies multiple blood-pressure-related loci.

PubMed ID: 24560520

Author(s): Tragante V, Barnes MR, Ganesh SK, Lanktree MB, Guo W, Franceschini N, Smith EN, Johnson T, Holmes MV, Padmanabhan S, Karczewski KJ, Almoguera B, Barnard J, Baumert J, Chang YP, Elbers CC, Farrall M, Fischer ME, Gaunt TR, Gho JM, Gieger C, Goel A, Gong Y, Isaacs A, Kleber ME, Mateo Leach I, McDonough CW, Meijs MF, Melander O, Nelson CP, Nolte IM, Pankratz N, Price TS, Shaffer J, Shah S, Tomaszewski M, van der Most PJ, Van Iperen EP, Vonk JM, Witkowska K, Wong CO, Zhang L, Beitelshees AL, Berenson GS, Bhatt DL, Brown M, Burt A, Cooper-DeHoff RM, Connell JM, Cruickshanks KJ, Curtis SP, Davey-Smith G, Delles C, Gansevoort RT, Guo X, Haiqing S, Hastie CE, Hofker MH, Hovingh GK, Kim DS, Kirkland SA, Klein BE, Klein R, Li YR, Maiwald S, Newton-Cheh C, O’Brien ET, Onland-Moret NC, Palmas W, Parsa A, Penninx BW, Pettinger M, Vasan RS, Ranchalis JE, M Ridker P, Rose LM, Sever P, Shimbo D, Steele L, Stolk RP, Thorand B, Trip MD, van Duijn CM, Verschuren WM, Wijmenga C, Wyatt S, Young JH, Zwinderman AH, Bezzina CR, Boerwinkle E, Casas JP, Caulfield MJ, Chakravarti A, Chasman DI, Davidson KW, Doevendans PA, Dominiczak AF, FitzGerald GA, Gums JG, Fornage M, Hakonarson H, Halder I, Hillege HL, Illig T, Jarvik GP, Johnson JA, Kastelein JJ, Koenig W, Kumari M, März W, Murray SS, O’Connell JR, Oldehinkel AJ, Pankow JS, Rader DJ, Redline S, Reilly MP, Schadt EE, Kottke-Marchant K, Snieder H, Snyder M, Stanton AV, Tobin MD, Uitterlinden AG, van der Harst P, van der Schouw YT, Samani NJ, Watkins H, Johnson AD, Reiner AP, Zhu X, de Bakker PI, Levy D, Asselbergs FW, Munroe PB, Keating BJ. Gene-centric meta-analysis in 87,736 individuals of European ancestry identifies multiple blood-pressure-related loci. Am J Hum Genet. 2014 Mar 6;94(3):349-60. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.12.016. Epub 2014 Feb 20. PMID 24560520

Journal: American Journal Of Human Genetics, Volume 94, Issue 3, Mar 2014

Blood pressure (BP) is a heritable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. To investigate genetic associations with systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and pulse pressure (PP), we genotyped ~50,000 SNPs in up to 87,736 individuals of European ancestry and combined these in a meta-analysis. We replicated findings in an independent set of 68,368 individuals of European ancestry. Our analyses identified 11 previously undescribed associations in independent loci containing 31 genes including PDE1A, HLA-DQB1, CDK6, PRKAG2, VCL, H19, NUCB2, RELA, HOXC@ complex, FBN1, and NFAT5 at the Bonferroni-corrected array-wide significance threshold (p < 6 × 10(-7)) and confirmed 27 previously reported associations. Bioinformatic analysis of the 11 loci provided support for a putative role in hypertension of several genes, such as CDK6 and NUCB2. Analysis of potential pharmacological targets in databases of small molecules showed that ten of the genes are predicted to be a target for small molecules. In summary, we identified previously unknown loci associated with BP. Our findings extend our understanding of genes involved in BP regulation, which may provide new targets for therapeutic intervention or drug response stratification.