Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
A key goal of precision medicine is to disaggregate common, complex diseases into discrete molecular subtypes. Rare coding variants in the low-density lipoprotein receptor gene (LDLR) are identified in 1% to 2% of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients, defining a molecular subtype with risk driven by hypercholesterolemia.Methods
To search for additional subtypes, we compared the frequency of rare, predicted loss-of-function and damaging missense variants aggregated within a given gene in 41 081 CAD cases versus 217 115 controls.Results
Rare variants in LDLR were most strongly associated with CAD, present in 1% of cases and associated with 4.4-fold increased CAD risk. A second subtype was characterized by variants in endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene (NOS3), a key enzyme regulating vascular tone, endothelial function, and platelet aggregation. A rare predicted loss-of-function or damaging missense variants in NOS3 was present in 0.6% of cases and associated with 2.42-fold increased risk of CAD (95% CI, 1.80-3.26; P=5.50×10-9). These variants were associated with higher systolic blood pressure (+3.25 mm Hg; [95% CI, 1.86-4.65]; P=5.00×10-6) and increased risk of hypertension (adjusted odds ratio 1.31; [95% CI, 1.14-1.51]; P=2.00×10-4) but not circulating cholesterol concentrations, suggesting that, beyond lipid pathways, nitric oxide synthesis is a key nonlipid driver of CAD risk.Conclusions
Beyond LDLR, we identified an additional nonlipid molecular subtype of CAD characterized by rare variants in the NOS3 gene.
SUBMITTER: Khera AV
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9771961 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Khera Amit V AV Wang Minxian M Chaffin Mark M Emdin Connor A CA Samani Nilesh J NJ Schunkert Heribert H Watkins Hugh H McPherson Ruth R Erdmann Jeanette J Elosua Roberto R Boerwinkle Eric E Ardissino Diego D Butterworth Adam S AS Di Angelantonio Emanuele E Naheed Aliya A Danesh John J Chowdhury Rajiv R Krumholz Harlan M HM Sheu Wayne H-H WH Rich Stephen S SS Rotter Jerome I JI Chen Yii-der Ida YI Gabriel Stacey S Lander Eric S ES Saleheen Danish D Kathiresan Sekar S
Circulation. Genomic and precision medicine 20221010 6
<h4>Background</h4>A key goal of precision medicine is to disaggregate common, complex diseases into discrete molecular subtypes. Rare coding variants in the low-density lipoprotein receptor gene (<i>LDLR</i>) are identified in 1% to 2% of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients, defining a molecular subtype with risk driven by hypercholesterolemia.<h4>Methods</h4>To search for additional subtypes, we compared the frequency of rare, predicted loss-of-function and damaging missense variants aggreg ...[more]