Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is a heritable biomarker of genomic aging. In this study, we perform a genome-wide meta-analysis of LTL by pooling densely genotyped and imputed association results across large-scale European-descent studies including up to 78,592 individuals. We identify 49 genomic regions at a false dicovery rate (FDR) 350,000 UK Biobank participants suggest that genetically shorter telomere length increases the risk of hypothyroidism and decreases the risk of thyroid cancer, lymphoma, and a range of proliferative conditions. Our results replicate previously reported associations with increased risk of coronary artery disease and lower risk for multiple cancer types. Our findings substantially expand current knowledge on genes that regulate LTL and their impact on human health and disease. ; The ENGAGE Project was funded under the European Union Framework 7 – Health Theme (HEALTH-F4-2007- 201413). The InterAct project received funding from the European Union (Integrated Project LSHM-CT-2006-037197 in the Framework Programme 6 of the European Community). The EPIC-CVD study was supported by core funding from the UK Medical Research Council (MR/L003120/1), the British Heart Foundation (RG/13/13/30194; RG/18/13/33946), the European Commission Framework Programme 7 (HEALTH-F2-2012-279233), and the National Institute for Health Research [Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre at the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust]. C.P.N is funded by the BHF. V.C., C.P.N. and N.J.S. are supported by the NIHR Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Centre and N.J.S. holds an NIHR Senior Investigator award. Chen Li is support by a 4-year Wellcome Trust PhD Studentship; CL, LAL, NJW are funded by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12015/1). NJW is an NIHR Senior Investigator. JD is funded by the National Institute for Health Research [Senior Investigator Award]. Cohort specific and further acknowledgements are given in the Supplemental Data.
Publisher's version (útgefin grein). ; Background: Genome-wide association studies conducted on QRS duration, an electrocardiographic measurement associated with heart failure and sudden cardiac death, have led to novel biological insights into cardiac function. However, the variants identified fall predominantly in non-coding regions and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Results: Here, we identify putative functional coding variation associated with changes in the QRS interval duration by combining Illumina HumanExome BeadChip genotype data from 77,898 participants of European ancestry and 7695 of African descent in our discovery cohort, followed by replication in 111,874 individuals of European ancestry from the UK Biobank and deCODE cohorts. We identify ten novel loci, seven within coding regions, including ADAMTS6, significantly associated with QRS duration in gene-based analyses. ADAMTS6 encodes a secreted metalloprotease of currently unknown function. In vitro validation analysis shows that the QRS-associated variants lead to impaired ADAMTS6 secretion and loss-of function analysis in mice demonstrates a previously unappreciated role for ADAMTS6 in connexin 43 gap junction expression, which is essential for myocardial conduction. Conclusions: Our approach identifies novel coding and non-coding variants underlying ventricular depolarization and provides a possible mechanism for the ADAMTS6-associated conduction changes. ; Funding This work was funded by a grant to YJ from the British Heart Foundation (PG/12/38/29615). AGES: This study has been funded by NIH contracts N01-AG-1-2100 and 271201200022C, the NIA Intramural Research Program, Hjartavernd (the Icelandic Heart Association), and the Althingi (the Icelandic Parliament). The study is approved by the Icelandic National Bioethics Committee, VSN: 00–063. The researchers are indebted to the participants for their willingness to participate in the study. ARIC: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study is carried out as a collaborative study supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute contracts (HHSN268201100005C, HHSN268201100006C, HHSN268201100007C, HHSN268201100008C, HHSN268201100009C, HHSN268201100010C, HHSN268201100011C, and HHSN268201100012C), R01HL087641, R01HL59367, and R01HL086694; National Human Genome Research Institute contract U01HG004402; and National Institutes of Health contract HHSN268200625226C. The authors thank the staff and participants of the ARIC study for their important contributions. Infrastructure was partly supported by Grant Number UL1RR025005, a component of the National Institutes of Health and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Funding support for "Building on GWAS for NHLBI-diseases: the U.S. CHARGE consortium" was provided by the NIH through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (5RC2HL102419). BRIGHT: The Exome Chip genotyping was funded by Wellcome Trust Strategic Awards (083948 and 085475). This work was also supported by the Medical Research Council of Great Britain (Grant no. G9521010D); and by the British Heart Foundation (Grant no. PG/02/128). AFD was supported by the British Heart Foundation (Grant nos. RG/07/005/23633 and SP/08/005/25115); and by the European Union Ingenious HyperCare Consortium: Integrated Genomics, Clinical Research, and Care in Hypertension (grant no. LSHM-C7–2006-037093). The BRIGHT study is extremely grateful to all the patients who participated in the study and the BRIGHT nursing team. We would also like to thank the Barts Genome Centre staff for their assistance with this project. CHS: This Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) research was supported by NHLBI contracts HHSN268201800001C, HHSN268201200036C, HHSN268200800007C, N01HC55222, N01HC85079, N01HC85080, N01HC85081, N01HC85082, N01HC85083, N01HC85086; and NHLBI grants R01HL068986, U01HL080295, R01HL087652, R01HL105756, R01HL103612, R01HL120393, and U01HL130114 with additional contribution from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Additional support was provided through R01AG023629 from the National Institute on Aging (NIA). A full list of principal CHS investigators and institutions can be found at CHS-NHLBI.org. The provision of genotyping data was supported in part by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, CTSI grant UL1TR001881, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease Diabetes Research Center (DRC) grant DK063491 to the Southern California Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. ERF: The ERF study as a part of EUROSPAN (European Special Populations Research Network) was supported by European Commission FP6 STRP grant number 018947 (LSHG-CT-2006-01947) and also received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/grant agreement HEALTH-F4–2007-201413 by the European Commission under the programme "Quality of Life and Management of the Living Resources" of 5th Framework Programme (no. QLG2-CT-2002-01254). The ERF study was further supported by ENGAGE consortium and CMSB. High-throughput analysis of the ERF data was supported by joint grant from Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (NWO-RFBR 047.017.043). We are grateful to all study participants and their relatives, general practitioners, and neurologists for their contributions to the ERF study and to P Veraart for her help in genealogy, J Vergeer for the supervision of the laboratory work, and P Snijders for his help in data collection. FHS: The Framingham Heart Study (FHS) research reported in this article was supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), HL120393. Generation Scotland: Generation Scotland received core support from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates (CZD/16/6) and the Scottish Funding Council (HR03006). Genotyping of the Generation Scotland and Scottish Family Health Study samples was carried out by the Genetics Core Laboratory at the Clinical Research Facility, Edinburgh, Scotland and was funded by the UK's Medical Research Council. GOCHA: The Genetics of Cerebral Hemorrhage with Anticoagulation was carried out as a collaborative study supported by grants R01NS073344, R01NS059727, and 5K23NS059774 from the NIH–National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH-NINDS). GRAPHIC: The GRAPHIC Study was funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF/RG/2000004). NJS and CPN are supported by the British Heart Foundation and is a NIHR Senior Investigator. This work falls under the portfolio of research supported by the NIHR Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research. INGI-FVG: This study has been funded by Regione FVG (L.26.2008). INTER99: The Inter99 was initiated by Torben Jørgensen (PI), Knut Borch-Johnsen (co-PI), Hans Ibsen and Troels F. Thomsen. The steering committee comprises the former two and Charlotta Pisinger. The study was financially supported by research grants from the Danish Research Council, the Danish Centre for Health Technology Assessment, Novo Nordisk Inc., Research Foundation of Copenhagen County, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Health, the Danish Heart Foundation, the Danish Pharmaceutical Association, the Augustinus Foundation, the Ib Henriksen Foundation, the Becket Foundation, and the Danish Diabetes Association. The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research is an independent Research Center at the University of Copenhagen partially funded by an unrestricted donation from the Novo Nordisk Foundation (www.metabol.ku.dk). JHS: We thank the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) participants and staff for their contributions to this work. The JHS is supported by contracts HHSN268201300046C, HHSN268201300047C, HHSN268201300048C, HHSN268201300049C, HHSN268201300050C from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Dr. Wilson is supported by U54GM115428 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. KORA: The KORA study was initiated and financed by the Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the State of Bavaria. Furthermore, KORA research was supported within the Munich Center of Health Sciences (MC-Health), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, as part of LMUinnovativ. Korcula: This work was funded by the Medical Research Council UK, The Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (grant 216–1080315-0302), the Croatian Science Foundation (grant 8875), the Centre of Excellence in Personalized health care, and the Centre of Competencies for Integrative Treatment, Prevention and Rehabilitation using TMS. LifeLines: The LifeLines Cohort Study and generation and management of GWAS genotype data for the LifeLines Cohort Study are supported by The Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research NWO (grant 175.010.2007.006), the Economic Structure Enhancing Fund (FES) of the Dutch government, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sports, the Northern Netherlands Collaboration of Provinces (SNN), the Province of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the University of Groningen, Dutch Kidney Foundation, and Dutch Diabetes Research Foundation. Niek Verweij is supported by NWO-VENI (016.186.125) and Marie Sklodowska-Curie GF (call: H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, Project ID: 661395). UHP: Folkert W. Asselbergs is supported by UCL Hospitals NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. Ilonca Vaartjes is supported by a Dutch Heart Foundation grant DHF project "Facts and Figures." MGH-CAMP: Dr. Patrick Ellinor is funded by NIH grants (2R01HL092577, 1R01HL128914, R01HL104156, and K24HL105780) and American Heart Association Established Investigator Award 13EIA14220013 (Ellinor). Dr. Steve Lubitz is funded by NIH grants K23HL114724 and a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award 2014105. NEO: The authors of the NEO study thank all individuals who participated in the Netherlands Epidemiology in Obesity study, all participating general practitioners for inviting eligible participants, and all research nurses for collection of the data. We thank the NEO study group, Pat van Beelen, Petra Noordijk, and Ingeborg de Jonge for the coordination, lab, and data management of the NEO study. We also thank Arie Maan for the analyses of the electrocardiograms. The genotyping in the NEO study was supported by the Centre National de Génotypage (Paris, France), headed by Jean-Francois Deleuze. The NEO study is supported by the participating Departments, the Division and the Board of Directors of the Leiden University Medical Center, and by the Leiden University, Research Profile Area Vascular and Regenerative Medicine. Dennis Mook-Kanamori is supported by Dutch Science Organization (ZonMW-VENI Grant 916.14.023). RS-I: The generation and management of the Illumina Exome Chip v1.0 array data for the Rotterdam Study (RS-I) was executed by the Human Genotyping Facility of the Genetic Laboratory of the Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The Exome chip array dataset was funded by the Genetic Laboratory of the Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, from the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)/Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)-sponsored Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA; project nr. 050–060-810); the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO; project number 184021007); and by the Rainbow Project (RP10; Netherlands Exome Chip Project) of the Biobanking and Biomolecular Research Infrastructure Netherlands (BBMRI-NL; www.bbmri.nl). We thank Ms. Mila Jhamai, Ms. Sarah Higgins, and Mr. Marijn Verkerk for their help in creating the exome chip database, and Carolina Medina-Gomez, MSc, Lennard Karsten, MSc, and Linda Broer PhD for QC and variant calling. Variants were called using the best practice protocol developed by Grove et al. as part of the CHARGE consortium exome chip central calling effort. The Rotterdam Study is funded by Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands Organization for the Health Research and Development (ZonMw), the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sports, the European Commission (DG XII), and the Municipality of Rotterdam. The authors are grateful to the study participants, the staff from the Rotterdam Study, and the participating general practitioners and pharmacists. The work of Bruno H. Stricker is supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) (Priority Medicines Elderly 113102005 to ME and DoelmatigheidsOnderzoek 80–82500–98-10208 to BHS). The work of Mark Eijgelsheim is supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) (Priority Medicines Elderly 113102005 to ME and DoelmatigheidsOnderzoek 80–82500–98-10208 to BHS). SHIP: SHIP is supported by the BMBF (grants 01ZZ9603, 01ZZ0103, and 01ZZ0403) and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [DFG]; grant GR 1912/5–1). SHIP and SHIP-TREND are part of the Community Medicine Research net (CMR) of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald (EMAU) which is funded by the BMBF as well as the Ministry for Education, Science and Culture and the Ministry of Labor, Equal Opportunities, and Social Affairs of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. The CMR encompasses several research projects that share data from SHIP. The EMAU is a member of the Center of Knowledge Interchange (CKI) program of the Siemens AG. SNP typing of SHIP and SHIP-TREND using the Illumina Infinium HumanExome BeadChip (version v1.0) was supported by the BMBF (grant 03Z1CN22). We thank all SHIP and SHIP-TREND participants and staff members as well as the genotyping staff involved in the generation of the SNP data. TWINSUK: TwinsUK is funded by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, European Union, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)-funded BioResource, Clinical Research Facility and Biomedical Research Centre based at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London. UKBB: This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource (application 8256 - Understanding genetic influences in the response of the cardiac electrical system to exercise) and is supported by Medical Research Council grant MR/N025083/1. We also wish to acknowledge the support of the NIHR Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit at Barts and Queen Mary University of London, UK. PD Lambiase acknowledges support from the UCLH Biomedicine NIHR. MO is supported by an IEF 2013 Marie Curie fellowship. JR acknowledges support from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under REA grant agreement no. 608765. YFS: The Young Finns Study has been financially supported by the Academy of Finland: grants 286284, 134309 (Eye), 126925, 121584, 124282, 129378 (Salve), 117787 (Gendi), and 41071 (Skidi); the Social Insurance Institution of Finland; Competitive State Research Financing of the Expert Responsibility area of Kuopio, Tampere and Turku University Hospitals (grant X51001); Juho Vainio Foundation; Paavo Nurmi Foundation; Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research; Finnish Cultural Foundation; Tampere Tuberculosis Foundation; Emil Aaltonen Foundation; Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation; Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation; and Diabetes Research Foundation of Finnish Diabetes Association. The expert technical assistance in the statistical analyses by Irina Lisinen is gratefully acknowledged. Cell culture and biochemistry: Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health (Program of Excellence in Glycoscience award HL107147 to SSA and F32AR063548 to TJM) and the David and Lindsay Morgenthaler Postdoctoral Fellowship (to TJM) and by the Allen Distinguished Investigator Program, through support made by The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group and the American Heart Association (to SSA). Mutant mouse model: Adamts6 mutant mice were generated and further propagated and analyzed by funding provided by NIH grants HL098180 and HL132024 (to CWL) and by the Allen Distinguished Investigator Program, through support made by The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group and the American Heart Association (to SSA). ; Peer Reviewed
The authors have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Bruce M. Psaty (BMP) serves on the DSMB of a clinical trial funded by Zoll Lifecor and on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson. Barbara V. Howard (BVH) has a contract from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Brenda W.J.H. Penninx (BWJHP) has received research funding (non-related to the work reported here) from Jansen Research and Boehringer Ingelheim. Mike A. Nalls (MAN) is supported by a consulting contract between Data Tecnica International LLC and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. MAN also consults for Illumina Inc., the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the University of California Healthcare. MAN also has commercial affiliation with Data Tecnica International, Glen Echo, MD, USA. Mark J. Caulfield (MJC) has commercial affiliation and is Chief Scientist for Genomics England, a UK government company. OHF is supported by grants from Metagenics (on women's health and epigenetics) and from Nestlé (on child health). Peter S. Sever (PSS) is financial supported from several pharmaceutical companies which manufacture either blood pressure lowering or lipid lowering agents, or both, and consultancy fees. Paul W. Franks (PWF) has been a paid consultant in the design of a personalized nutrition trial (PREDICT) as part of a private-public partnership at Kings College London, UK, and has received research support from several pharmaceutical companies as part of European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) projects. Terho Lehtimäki (TL) is employed by Fimlab Ltd. Ozren Polašek (OP) is employed by Gen‐info Ltd. There are no patents, products in development, or marked products to declare. All the other authors have declared no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. ; International audience ; Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3,514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 x 10-5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2,159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 x 10-8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 x 10-8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertension.
The authors have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Bruce M. Psaty (BMP) serves on the DSMB of a clinical trial funded by Zoll Lifecor and on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson. Barbara V. Howard (BVH) has a contract from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Brenda W.J.H. Penninx (BWJHP) has received research funding (non-related to the work reported here) from Jansen Research and Boehringer Ingelheim. Mike A. Nalls (MAN) is supported by a consulting contract between Data Tecnica International LLC and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. MAN also consults for Illumina Inc., the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the University of California Healthcare. MAN also has commercial affiliation with Data Tecnica International, Glen Echo, MD, USA. Mark J. Caulfield (MJC) has commercial affiliation and is Chief Scientist for Genomics England, a UK government company. OHF is supported by grants from Metagenics (on women's health and epigenetics) and from Nestlé (on child health). Peter S. Sever (PSS) is financial supported from several pharmaceutical companies which manufacture either blood pressure lowering or lipid lowering agents, or both, and consultancy fees. Paul W. Franks (PWF) has been a paid consultant in the design of a personalized nutrition trial (PREDICT) as part of a private-public partnership at Kings College London, UK, and has received research support from several pharmaceutical companies as part of European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) projects. Terho Lehtimäki (TL) is employed by Fimlab Ltd. Ozren Polašek (OP) is employed by Gen‐info Ltd. There are no patents, products in development, or marked products to declare. All the other authors have declared no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. ; International audience ; Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3,514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 x 10-5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2,159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 x 10-8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 x 10-8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertension.
The authors have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Bruce M. Psaty (BMP) serves on the DSMB of a clinical trial funded by Zoll Lifecor and on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson. Barbara V. Howard (BVH) has a contract from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Brenda W.J.H. Penninx (BWJHP) has received research funding (non-related to the work reported here) from Jansen Research and Boehringer Ingelheim. Mike A. Nalls (MAN) is supported by a consulting contract between Data Tecnica International LLC and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. MAN also consults for Illumina Inc., the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the University of California Healthcare. MAN also has commercial affiliation with Data Tecnica International, Glen Echo, MD, USA. Mark J. Caulfield (MJC) has commercial affiliation and is Chief Scientist for Genomics England, a UK government company. OHF is supported by grants from Metagenics (on women's health and epigenetics) and from Nestlé (on child health). Peter S. Sever (PSS) is financial supported from several pharmaceutical companies which manufacture either blood pressure lowering or lipid lowering agents, or both, and consultancy fees. Paul W. Franks (PWF) has been a paid consultant in the design of a personalized nutrition trial (PREDICT) as part of a private-public partnership at Kings College London, UK, and has received research support from several pharmaceutical companies as part of European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) projects. Terho Lehtimäki (TL) is employed by Fimlab Ltd. Ozren Polašek (OP) is employed by Gen‐info Ltd. There are no patents, products in development, or marked products to declare. All the other authors have declared no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. ; International audience ; Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3,514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 x 10-5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2,159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 x 10-8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 x 10-8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertension.
Publisher's version (útgefin grein). ; Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3, 514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 × 10-5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2, 159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 × 10-8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 × 10-8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertension. ; The following authors declare commercial private and/or governmental affiliations: Bruce M. Psaty (BMP) serves on the DSMB of a clinical trial funded by Zoll Lifecor and on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson. Barbara V. Howard (BVH) has a contract from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Brenda W.J.H. Penninx (BWJHP) has received research funding (non-related to the work reported here) from Jansen Research and Boehringer Ingelheim. Mike A. Nalls (MAN) is supported by a consulting contract between Data Tecnica International LLC and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA. MAN also consults for Illumina Inc., the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the University of California Healthcare. MAN also has commercial affiliation with Data Tecnica International, Glen Echo, MD, USA. Mark J. Caulfield (MJC) has commercial affiliation and is Chief Scientist for Genomics England, a UK government company. Oscar H Franco (OHF) is supported by grants from Metagenics (on women's health and epigenetics) and from Nestlé (on child health). Peter S. Sever (PSS) is financial supported from several pharmaceutical companies which manufacture either blood pressure lowering or lipid lowering agents, or both, and consultancy fees. Paul W. Franks (PWF) has been a paid consultant in the design of a personalized nutrition trial (PREDICT) as part of a private-public partnership at Kings College London, UK, and has received research support from several pharmaceutical companies as part of European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) projects. Fimlab LTD provided support in the form of salaries for author Terho Lehtimäki (TL) but did not have any additional role in the study design to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Gen‐info Ltd provided support in the form of salaries for author Ozren Polašek (OP) but did not have any additional role in the study design to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the 'author contributions' section. There are no patents, products in development, or marked products to declare. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ; Peer Reviewed
