Articles: black-people-genetics.
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Multicenter Study
DISCOVERY: prevalence of transthyretin (TTR) mutations in a US-centric patient population suspected of having cardiac amyloidosis.
Hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (hATTR amyloidosis) is a multisystem disease that presents with polyneuropathy and/or cardiomyopathy. ⋯ Pathogenic TTR mutations occurred in 8% of US patients with suspected cardiac amyloidosis. Most mutations were Val122Ile, almost exclusively found in Black/African American patients. Disease often remains undetected until advanced and difficult to treat, therefore, clinicians should assess at-risk patients for hATTR amyloidosis as early as possible.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Oct 2020
Whole Genome Sequencing Identifies Novel Functional Loci Associated with Lung Function in Puerto Rican Youth.
Rationale: Puerto Ricans have the highest childhood asthma prevalence in the United States (23.6%); however, the etiology is uncertain. Objectives: In this study, we sought to uncover the genetic architecture of lung function in Puerto Rican youth with and without asthma who were recruited from the island (n = 836). Methods: We used admixture-mapping and whole-genome sequencing data to discover genomic regions associated with lung function. ⋯ The region-based association tests identified four suggestive windows that harbored candidate rare variants associated with lung function. Conclusions: We identified common and rare genetic variants that may play a critical role in lung function among Puerto Rican youth. We independently validated an inflammatory pathway that could potentially be used to develop more targeted treatments and interventions for patients with asthma.
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Multicenter Study
Association of Genetic Variants With Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Among Individuals With African Ancestry.
Primary open-angle glaucoma presents with increased prevalence and a higher degree of clinical severity in populations of African ancestry compared with European or Asian ancestry. Despite this, individuals of African ancestry remain understudied in genomic research for blinding disorders. ⋯ In this genome-wide association study, variants at the APBB2 locus demonstrated differential association with primary open-angle glaucoma by ancestry. If validated in additional populations this finding may have implications for risk assessment and therapeutic strategies.
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Observational Study
Association of a Genetic Risk Score With Body Mass Index Across Different Birth Cohorts.
Many genetic variants are associated with body mass index (BMI). Associations may have changed with the 20th century obesity epidemic and may differ for black vs white individuals. ⋯ For participants born between 1900 and 1958, the magnitude of association between BMI and a genetic risk score for BMI was larger among persons born in later cohorts. This suggests that associations of known genetic variants with BMI may be modified by obesogenic environments.
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Warfarin is a widely used anticoagulant whose active S-enantiomer is primarily metabolized by the CYP2C9 enzyme. The CYP2C9*2 and CYP2C9*3 alleles are associated with lower warfarin dose requirement and decreased enzyme activity. In contrast, we previously identified a novel single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs7089580A > T) in CYP2C9 that is associated with higher warfarin dose requirement in African Americans (AAs). ⋯ Our findings indicate that rs7089580 is associated with higher S-warfarin clearance and CYP2C9 expression and may help explain the higher dose requirement of warfarin in AAs. Furthermore, rs7089580 is in complete linkage disequilibrium with the promoter SNP rs12251841 in AAs, which may provide a biologically plausible explanation for the observed effect on CYP2C9 expression levels. Given the many clinically relevant substrates of CYP2C9, identifying polymorphisms that affect expression levels and metabolism across ethnicities is essential for individualization of doses with a narrow therapeutic index.