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. 2011 Sep 11;478(7367):103-9.
doi: 10.1038/nature10405.

Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk

International Consortium for Blood Pressure Genome-Wide Association Studies; Georg B Ehret, Patricia B Munroe, Kenneth M Rice, Murielle Bochud, Andrew D Johnson, Daniel I Chasman, Albert V Smith, Martin D Tobin, Germaine C Verwoert, Shih-Jen Hwang, Vasyl Pihur, Peter Vollenweider, Paul F O'Reilly, Najaf Amin, Jennifer L Bragg-Gresham, Alexander Teumer, Nicole L Glazer, Lenore Launer, Jing Hua Zhao, Yurii Aulchenko, Simon Heath, Siim Sõber, Afshin Parsa, Jian'an Luan, Pankaj Arora, Abbas Dehghan, Feng Zhang, Gavin Lucas, Andrew A Hicks, Anne U Jackson, John F Peden, Toshiko Tanaka, Sarah H Wild, Igor Rudan, Wilmar Igl, Yuri Milaneschi, Alex N Parker, Cristiano Fava, John C Chambers, Ervin R Fox, Meena Kumari, Min Jin Go, Pim van der Harst, Wen Hong Linda Kao, Marketa Sjögren, D G Vinay, Myriam Alexander, Yasuharu Tabara, Sue Shaw-Hawkins, Peter H Whincup, Yongmei Liu, Gang Shi, Johanna Kuusisto, Bamidele Tayo, Mark Seielstad, Xueling Sim, Khanh-Dung Hoang Nguyen, Terho Lehtimäki, Giuseppe Matullo, Ying Wu, Tom R Gaunt, N Charlotte Onland-Moret, Matthew N Cooper, Carl G P Platou, Elin Org, Rebecca Hardy, Santosh Dahgam, Jutta Palmen, Veronique Vitart, Peter S Braund, Tatiana Kuznetsova, Cuno S P M Uiterwaal, Adebowale Adeyemo, Walter Palmas, Harry Campbell, Barbara Ludwig, Maciej Tomaszewski, Ioanna Tzoulaki, Nicholette D Palmer; CARDIoGRAM consortium; CKDGen Consortium; KidneyGen Consortium; EchoGen consortium; CHARGE-HF consortium; Thor Aspelund, Melissa Garcia, Yen-Pei C Chang, Jeffrey R O'Connell, Nanette I Steinle, Diederick E Grobbee, Dan E Arking, Sharon L Kardia, Alanna C Morrison, Dena Hernandez, Samer Najjar, Wendy L McArdle, David Hadley, Morris J Brown, John M Connell, Aroon D Hingorani, Ian N M Day, Debbie A Lawlor, John P Beilby, Robert W Lawrence, Robert Clarke, Jemma C Hopewell, Halit Ongen, Albert W Dreisbach, Yali Li, J Hunter Young, Joshua C Bis, Mika Kähönen, Jorma Viikari, Linda S Adair, Nanette R Lee, Ming-Huei Chen, Matthias Olden, Cristian Pattaro, Judith A Hoffman Bolton, Anna Köttgen, Sven Bergmann, Vincent Mooser, Nish Chaturvedi, Timothy M Frayling, Muhammad Islam, Tazeen H Jafar, Jeanette Erdmann, Smita R Kulkarni, Stefan R Bornstein, Jürgen Grässler, Leif Groop, Benjamin F Voight, Johannes Kettunen, Philip Howard, Andrew Taylor, Simonetta Guarrera, Fulvio Ricceri, Valur Emilsson, Andrew Plump, Inês Barroso, Kay-Tee Khaw, Alan B Weder, Steven C Hunt, Yan V Sun, Richard N Bergman, Francis S Collins, Lori L Bonnycastle, Laura J Scott, Heather M Stringham, Leena Peltonen, Markus Perola, Erkki Vartiainen, Stefan-Martin Brand, Jan A Staessen, Thomas J Wang, Paul R Burton, Maria Soler Artigas, Yanbin Dong, Harold Snieder, Xiaoling Wang, Haidong Zhu, Kurt K Lohman, Megan E Rudock, Susan R Heckbert, Nicholas L Smith, Kerri L Wiggins, Ayo Doumatey, Daniel Shriner, Gudrun Veldre, Margus Viigimaa, Sanjay Kinra, Dorairaj Prabhakaran, Vikal Tripathy, Carl D Langefeld, Annika Rosengren, Dag S Thelle, Anna Maria Corsi, Andrew Singleton, Terrence Forrester, Gina Hilton, Colin A McKenzie, Tunde Salako, Naoharu Iwai, Yoshikuni Kita, Toshio Ogihara, Takayoshi Ohkubo, Tomonori Okamura, Hirotsugu Ueshima, Satoshi Umemura, Susana Eyheramendy, Thomas Meitinger, H-Erich Wichmann, Yoon Shin Cho, Hyung-Lae Kim, Jong-Young Lee, James Scott, Joban S Sehmi, Weihua Zhang, Bo Hedblad, Peter Nilsson, George Davey Smith, Andrew Wong, Narisu Narisu, Alena Stančáková, Leslie J Raffel, Jie Yao, Sekar Kathiresan, Christopher J O'Donnell, Stephen M Schwartz, M Arfan Ikram, W T Longstreth Jr, Thomas H Mosley, Sudha Seshadri, Nick R G Shrine, Louise V Wain, Mario A Morken, Amy J Swift, Jaana Laitinen, Inga Prokopenko, Paavo Zitting, Jackie A Cooper, Steve E Humphries, John Danesh, Asif Rasheed, Anuj Goel, Anders Hamsten, Hugh Watkins, Stephan J L Bakker, Wiek H van Gilst, Charles S Janipalli, K Radha Mani, Chittaranjan S Yajnik, Albert Hofman, Francesco U S Mattace-Raso, Ben A Oostra, Ayse Demirkan, Aaron Isaacs, Fernando Rivadeneira, Edward G Lakatta, Marco Orru, Angelo Scuteri, Mika Ala-Korpela, Antti J Kangas, Leo-Pekka Lyytikäinen, Pasi Soininen, Taru Tukiainen, Peter Würtz, Rick Twee-Hee Ong, Marcus Dörr, Heyo K Kroemer, Uwe Völker, Henry Völzke, Pilar Galan, Serge Hercberg, Mark Lathrop, Diana Zelenika, Panos Deloukas, Massimo Mangino, Tim D Spector, Guangju Zhai, James F Meschia, Michael A Nalls, Pankaj Sharma, Janos Terzic, M V Kranthi Kumar, Matthew Denniff, Ewa Zukowska-Szczechowska, Lynne E Wagenknecht, F Gerald R Fowkes, Fadi J Charchar, Peter E H Schwarz, Caroline Hayward, Xiuqing Guo, Charles Rotimi, Michiel L Bots, Eva Brand, Nilesh J Samani, Ozren Polasek, Philippa J Talmud, Fredrik Nyberg, Diana Kuh, Maris Laan, Kristian Hveem, Lyle J Palmer, Yvonne T van der Schouw, Juan P Casas, Karen L Mohlke, Paolo Vineis, Olli Raitakari, Santhi K Ganesh, Tien Y Wong, E Shyong Tai, Richard S Cooper, Markku Laakso, Dabeeru C Rao, Tamara B Harris, Richard W Morris, Anna F Dominiczak, Mika Kivimaki, Michael G Marmot, Tetsuro Miki, Danish Saleheen, Giriraj R Chandak, Josef Coresh, Gerjan Navis, Veikko Salomaa, Bok-Ghee Han, Xiaofeng Zhu, Jaspal S Kooner, Olle Melander, Paul M Ridker, Stefania Bandinelli, Ulf B Gyllensten, Alan F Wright, James F Wilson, Luigi Ferrucci, Martin Farrall, Jaakko Tuomilehto, Peter P Pramstaller, Roberto Elosua, Nicole Soranzo, Eric J G Sijbrands, David Altshuler, Ruth J F Loos, Alan R Shuldiner, Christian Gieger, Pierre Meneton, Andre G Uitterlinden, Nicholas J Wareham, Vilmundur Gudnason, Jerome I Rotter, Rainer Rettig, Manuela Uda, David P Strachan, Jacqueline C M Witteman, Anna-Liisa Hartikainen, Jacques S Beckmann, Eric Boerwinkle, Ramachandran S Vasan, Michael Boehnke, Martin G Larson, Marjo-Riitta Järvelin, Bruce M Psaty, Gonçalo R Abecasis, Aravinda Chakravarti, Paul Elliott, Cornelia M van Duijn, Christopher Newton-Cheh, Daniel Levy, Mark J Caulfield, Toby Johnson
Collaborators

Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk

International Consortium for Blood Pressure Genome-Wide Association Studies et al. Nature. .

Abstract

Blood pressure is a heritable trait influenced by several biological pathways and responsive to environmental stimuli. Over one billion people worldwide have hypertension (≥140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure or ≥90 mm Hg diastolic blood pressure). Even small increments in blood pressure are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. This genome-wide association study of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which used a multi-stage design in 200,000 individuals of European descent, identified sixteen novel loci: six of these loci contain genes previously known or suspected to regulate blood pressure (GUCY1A3-GUCY1B3, NPR3-C5orf23, ADM, FURIN-FES, GOSR2, GNAS-EDN3); the other ten provide new clues to blood pressure physiology. A genetic risk score based on 29 genome-wide significant variants was associated with hypertension, left ventricular wall thickness, stroke and coronary artery disease, but not kidney disease or kidney function. We also observed associations with blood pressure in East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry individuals. Our findings provide new insights into the genetics and biology of blood pressure, and suggest potential novel therapeutic pathways for cardiovascular disease prevention.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Genome-wide –log10 P-value plots and effects for significant loci. Genome-wide –log10 P-value plots are shown for systolic (SBP: panel a) and diastolic (DBP: panel b). SNPs within loci reaching genome-wide significance are labeled in red for SBP and blue for DBP (±2.5Mb of lowest P-value) and lowest P-values in the initial genome-wide analysis as well as the results of analysis including validation data are labeled separately. The lowest P-values in the initial GWAS are denoted as an X. The range of different sample sizes in the final meta-analysis including the validation data are indicated as: circle (96–140k), triangle (>140–180k), and diamond (>180–220k). SNPs near unconfirmed loci are in black. The horizontal dotted line is P=2.5 × 10−8. Panel c shows the effect size estimates and 95% confidence bars per BP-increasing allele of the 29 significant variants for SBP (red) and DBP (blue). Effect sizes are expressed in mmHg/allele. GUCY = GUCY1A3-GUCY1B3.
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