Circ Res 2016 Jan 20;118(1):83-94. Epub 2015 Oct 20.
From the Department of Clinical Molecular Biology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway (M.L., B.K.A.); Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Department of Biostatistics, University of Oslo, and Research Support Services, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway (M.L., A.F.); NORMENT - K.G. Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway (V.Z., A.W., F.B., Y.W., S.D., O.A.A.); Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway (V.Z., A.W., F.B., S.D., O.A.A.); Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Department of Biostatistics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway (B.K.A.); Deutsches Herzzentrum München, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany (L.Z., H.S.); Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung, partner site Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany (L.Z., H.S.); Multimodal Imaging Laboratory, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla (Y.W., L.K.M., A.J.S., R.S.D., A.M.D., O.A.A.); Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, (Y.W., A.M.D.); Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla (L.K.M., R.S.D., A.M.D.); Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla (W.K.T., A.M.D.); Cognitive Sciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, (A.J.S.); Department of Medical Biochemistry, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway (S.R.); Department of Medical Biochemistry, Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Oslo, Norway (S.R., K.M.G.); Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway (S.R., K.M.G.); Family and Preventive Medicine, Division of Epidemiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla (E.B.-C.); Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (S.L., A.D.); Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom (C.P.N.,
Rationale: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a critical determinant of morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have identified several cardiovascular disease risk factors, which may partly arise from a shared genetic basis with CAD, and thus be useful for discovery of CAD genes.
Objective: We aimed to improve discovery of CAD genes and inform the pathogenic relationship between CAD and several cardiovascular disease risk factors using a shared polygenic signal-informed statistical framework.
Methods And Results: Using genome-wide association studies summary statistics and shared polygenic pleiotropy-informed conditional and conjunctional false discovery rate methodology, we systematically investigated genetic overlap between CAD and 8 traits related to cardiovascular disease risk factors: low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, type 2 diabetes mellitus, C-reactive protein, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and type 1 diabetes mellitus. We found significant enrichment of single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with CAD as a function of their association with low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, type 2 diabetes mellitus, C-reactive protein, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and type 1 diabetes mellitus. Applying the conditional false discovery rate method to the enriched phenotypes, we identified 67 novel loci associated with CAD (overall conditional false discovery rate <0.01). Furthermore, we identified 53 loci with significant effects in both CAD and at least 1 of low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, type 2 diabetes mellitus, C-reactive protein, systolic blood pressure, and type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Conclusions: The observed polygenic overlap between CAD and cardiometabolic risk factors indicates a pathogenic relation that warrants further investigation. The new gene loci identified implicate novel genetic mechanisms related to CAD.