scholarly journals Genetics and Epigenetics of Atrial Fibrillation

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estefanía Lozano-Velasco ◽  
Diego Franco ◽  
Amelia Aranega ◽  
Houria Daimi

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is known to be the most common supraventricular arrhythmia affecting up to 1% of the general population. Its prevalence exponentially increases with age and could reach up to 8% in the elderly population. The management of AF is a complex issue that is addressed by extensive ongoing basic and clinical research. AF centers around different types of disturbances, including ion channel dysfunction, Ca2+-handling abnormalities, and structural remodeling. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered over 100 genetic loci associated with AF. Most of these loci point to ion channels, distinct cardiac-enriched transcription factors, as well as to other regulatory genes. Recently, the discovery of post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms, involving non-coding RNAs (especially microRNAs), DNA methylation, and histone modification, has allowed to decipher how a normal heart develops and which modifications are involved in reshaping the processes leading to arrhythmias. This review aims to provide a current state of the field regarding the identification and functional characterization of AF-related epigenetic regulatory networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianxiao Huan ◽  
Roby Joehanes ◽  
Ci Song ◽  
Fen Peng ◽  
Yichen Guo ◽  
...  

Abstract Identifying methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs) and integrating them with disease-associated variants from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) may illuminate functional mechanisms underlying genetic variant-disease associations. Here, we perform GWAS of >415 thousand CpG methylation sites in whole blood from 4170 individuals and map 4.7 million cis- and 630 thousand trans-meQTL variants targeting >120 thousand CpGs. Independent replication is performed in 1347 participants from two studies. By linking cis-meQTL variants with GWAS results for cardiovascular disease (CVD) traits, we identify 92 putatively causal CpGs for CVD traits by Mendelian randomization analysis. Further integrating gene expression data reveals evidence of cis CpG-transcript pairs causally linked to CVD. In addition, we identify 22 trans-meQTL hotspots each targeting more than 30 CpGs and find that trans-meQTL hotspots appear to act in cis on expression of nearby transcriptional regulatory genes. Our findings provide a powerful meQTL resource and shed light on DNA methylation involvement in human diseases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Roselli ◽  
Michiel Rienstra ◽  
Patrick T. Ellinor

Atrial fibrillation is a common heart rhythm disorder that leads to an increased risk for stroke and heart failure. Atrial fibrillation is a complex disease with both environmental and genetic risk factors that contribute to the arrhythmia. Over the last decade, rapid progress has been made in identifying the genetic basis for this common condition. In this review, we provide an overview of the primary types of genetic analyses performed for atrial fibrillation, including linkage studies, genome-wide association studies, and studies of rare coding variation. With these results in mind, we aim to highlighting the existing knowledge gaps and future directions for atrial fibrillation genetics research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 765-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Cruz ◽  
Ricardo Pinto ◽  
Margarida Freitas-Silva ◽  
José Pedro Nunes ◽  
Rui Medeiros

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke are included in a group of complex traits that have been approached regarding of their study by susceptibility genetic determinants. Since 2007, several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) aiming to identify genetic variants modulating AF risk have been conducted. Thus, 11 GWAS have identified 26 SNPs (p < 5 × 10-2), of which 19 reached genome-wide significance (p < 5 × 10-8). From those variants, seven were also associated with cardioembolic stroke and three reached genome-wide significance in stroke GWAS. These associations may shed a light on putative shared etiologic mechanisms between AF and cardioembolic stroke. Additionally, some of these identified variants have been incorporated in genetic risk scores in order to elucidate new approaches of stroke prediction, prevention and treatment.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
BW Kunkle ◽  
B Grenier-Boley ◽  
R Sims ◽  
JC Bis ◽  
AC Naj ◽  
...  

IntroductionLate-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD, onset age > 60 years) is the most prevalent dementia in the elderly1, and risk is partially driven by genetics2. Many of the loci responsible for this genetic risk were identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS)3–8. To identify additional LOAD risk loci, the we performed the largest GWAS to date (89,769 individuals), analyzing both common and rare variants. We confirm 20 previous LOAD risk loci and identify four new genome-wide loci (IQCK, ACE, ADAM10, and ADAMTS1). Pathway analysis of these data implicates the immune system and lipid metabolism, and for the first time tau binding proteins and APP metabolism. These findings show that genetic variants affecting APP and Aβ processing are not only associated with early-onset autosomal dominant AD but also with LOAD. Analysis of AD risk genes and pathways show enrichment for rare variants (P = 1.32 × 10−7) indicating that additional rare variants remain to be identified.


Author(s):  
Julie H. Andersen ◽  
Laura Andreasen ◽  
Morten S. Olesen

AbstractAtrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of arrhythmia. Epidemiological studies have documented a substantial genetic component. More than 160 genes have been associated with AF during the last decades. Some of these were discovered by classical linkage studies while the majority relies on functional studies or genome-wide association studies. In this review, we will evaluate the genetic basis of AF and the role of both common and rare genetic variants in AF. Rare variants in multiple ion-channel genes as well as gap junction and transcription factor genes have been associated with AF. More recently, a growing body of evidence has implicated structural genes with AF. An increased burden of atrial fibrosis in AF patients compared with non-AF patients has also been reported. These findings challenge our traditional understanding of AF being an electrical disease. We will focus on several quantitative landmark papers, which are transforming our understanding of AF by implicating atrial cardiomyopathies in the pathogenesis. This new AF research field may enable better diagnostics and treatment in the future.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Cowper-Sal·lari ◽  
Michael D. Cole ◽  
Margaret R. Karagas ◽  
Mathieu Lupien ◽  
Jason H. Moore

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Shah ◽  
◽  
Albert Henry ◽  
Carolina Roselli ◽  
Honghuang Lin ◽  
...  

AbstractHeart failure (HF) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A small proportion of HF cases are attributable to monogenic cardiomyopathies and existing genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have yielded only limited insights, leaving the observed heritability of HF largely unexplained. We report results from a GWAS meta-analysis of HF comprising 47,309 cases and 930,014 controls. Twelve independent variants at 11 genomic loci are associated with HF, all of which demonstrate one or more associations with coronary artery disease (CAD), atrial fibrillation, or reduced left ventricular function, suggesting shared genetic aetiology. Functional analysis of non-CAD-associated loci implicate genes involved in cardiac development (MYOZ1, SYNPO2L), protein homoeostasis (BAG3), and cellular senescence (CDKN1A). Mendelian randomisation analysis supports causal roles for several HF risk factors, and demonstrates CAD-independent effects for atrial fibrillation, body mass index, and hypertension. These findings extend our knowledge of the pathways underlying HF and may inform new therapeutic strategies.


Author(s):  
Mingyang Quan ◽  
Xin Liu ◽  
Qingzhang Du ◽  
Liang Xiao ◽  
Wenjie Lu ◽  
...  

Abstract Photosynthesis and wood formation underlie the ability of trees to provide renewable resources and perform ecosystem services; however, the genetic basis and regulatory pathways coordinating these two linked processes remain unclear. Here, we used a systems genetics strategy, integrating genome-wide association study, transcriptomic analyses, and transgenic experiments, to investigate the genetic architecture of photosynthesis and wood properties among 435 unrelated individuals of Populus tomentosa and unravel the coordinated regulatory networks causative of two trait categories. We totally detected 222 significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms, annotated to 177 candidate genes, for 10 traits of photosynthesis and wood properties. Epistasis uncovered 74 epistatic interactions for phenotypes. Strikingly, we deciphered the coordinated regulation patterns of pleiotropic genes underlying phenotypic variations for two trait categories. Furthermore, expression quantitative trait nucleotide mapping and coexpression analysis were integrated to unravel the potential transcriptional regulatory networks of candidate genes coordinating photosynthesis and wood properties. Finally, we heterologously expressed two pleiotropic genes, PtoMYB62 and PtoMYB80, in Arabidopsis thaliana, and demonstrated that they coordinate regulatory networks balancing photosynthesis and stem secondary cell wall components, respectively. Our study provides insight into the regulatory mechanisms coordinating photosynthesis and wood formation in poplar, which will accelerate the genetic breeding in trees via molecular design.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Shah ◽  
Albert Henry ◽  
Carolina Roselli ◽  
Honghuang Lin ◽  
Garðar Sveinbjörnsson ◽  
...  

AbstractHeart failure (HF) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide1. A small proportion of HF cases are attributable to monogenic cardiomyopathies and existing genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have yielded only limited insights, leaving the observed heritability of HF largely unexplained2–4. We report the largest GWAS meta-analysis of HF to-date, comprising 47,309 cases and 930,014 controls. We identify 12 independent variant associations with HF at 11 genomic loci, all of which demonstrate one or more associations with coronary artery disease (CAD), atrial fibrillation, or reduced left ventricular function suggesting shared genetic aetiology. Expression quantitative trait analysis of non-CAD-associated loci implicate genes involved in cardiac development (MYOZ1, SYNPO2L), protein homeostasis (BAG3), and cellular senescence (CDKN1A). Using Mendelian randomisation analysis we provide new evidence supporting previously equivocal causal roles for several HF risk factors identified in observational studies, and demonstrate CAD-independent effects for atrial fibrillation, body mass index, hypertension and triglycerides. These findings extend our knowledge of the genes and pathways underlying HF and may inform the development of new therapeutic approaches.


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