In the largest study of its kind, an international team of scientists has identified 95 genetic variants associated with fat, or lipid, levels in the blood that can contribute to heart disease.
Together, the gene variants — 59 of which were linked to lipid metabolism for the first time — explain about one-quarter of the inherited variations in cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood, researchers reported in today’s issue of Nature. Diet and exercise also influence blood lipid levels.
The discovery could lead scientists in “brand-new directions for developing treatments and preventive strategies for heart disease,” such as genetic tests to predict future risk and drugs that target the expression of specific genes, said Dr. Christopher J. O’Donnell, a study co-author and associate director of the landmark Framingham Heart Study.
Researchers from 17 countries scanned the genetic makeup of more than 100,000 people of European descent for gene variations associated with any of four heart disease risk factors: total cholesterol, “bad” cholesterol (LDL), “good” cholesterol (HDL) and triglycerides.
Additional scans showed that many of the 95 variants discovered in whites were also found in people of Asian and African descent.
A companion study, also published in Nature, took the findings a step further by identifying the mechanism that one of these genetic variations influences: “bad” cholesterol levels in mice. Similar work is needed to understand the effects of the other 94 variants.
Dr. Stephen Devries, a preventive cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital who was not involved in the research, said the findings “provide the building blocks that will allow other investigators to test ideas about whether different treatments based on a person’s genetic makeup may work better.”
Source :Times News Group.