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Multi-ancestry genome-wide study identifies effector genes and druggable pathways for coronary artery calcification

  • Maryam Kavousi*
  • , Maxime M. Bos
  • , Hanna J. Barnes
  • , Christian L. Lino Cardenas
  • , Doris Wong
  • , Haojie Lu
  • , Chani J. Hodonsky
  • , Lennart P.L. Landsmeer
  • , Adam W. Turner
  • , Minjung Kho
  • , Natalie R. Hasbani
  • , Paul S. de Vries
  • , Donald W. Bowden
  • , Sandesh Chopade
  • , Joris Deelen
  • , Ernest Diez Benavente
  • , Xiuqing Guo
  • , Edith Hofer
  • , Shih Jen Hwang
  • , Sharon M. Lutz
  • Leo Pekka Lyytikäinen, Lotte Slenders, Albert V. Smith, Maggie A. Stanislawski, Jessica van Setten, Quenna Wong, Lisa R. Yanek, Diane M. Becker, Marian Beekman, Matthew J. Budoff, Mary F. Feitosa, Chris Finan, Austin T. Hilliard, Sharon L.R. Kardia, Jason C. Kovacic, Brian G. Kral, Carl D. Langefeld, Lenore J. Launer, Shaista Malik, Firdaus A.A.Mohamed Hoesein, Michal Mokry, Reinhold Schmidt, Jennifer A. Smith, Kent D. Taylor, James G. Terry, Jeroen van der Grond, Joyce van Meurs, Rozemarijn Vliegenthart, Jianzhao Xu, Kendra A. Young, Nuno R. Zilhão, Robert Zweiker, Themistocles L. Assimes, Lewis C. Becker, Daniel Bos, J. Jeffrey Carr, L. Adrienne Cupples, Dominique P.v. de Kleijn, Menno de Winther, Hester M. den Ruijter, Myriam Fornage, Barry I. Freedman, Vilmundur Gudnason, Aroon D. Hingorani, John E. Hokanson, M. Arfan Ikram, Ivana Išgum, David R. Jacobs, Mika Kähönen, Leslie A. Lange, Terho Lehtimäki, Gerard Pasterkamp, Olli T. Raitakari, Helena Schmidt, P. Eline Slagboom, André G. Uitterlinden, Meike W. Vernooij, Joshua C. Bis, Nora Franceschini, Bruce M. Psaty, Wendy S. Post, Jerome I. Rotter, Johan L.M. Björkegren, Christopher J. O’Donnell, Lawrence F. Bielak, Patricia A. Peyser, Rajeev Malhotra, Sander W. van der Laan, Clint L. Miller*
*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

72 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Coronary artery calcification (CAC), a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis, predicts future symptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD). Identifying genetic risk factors for CAC may point to new therapeutic avenues for prevention. Currently, there are only four known risk loci for CAC identified from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in the general population. Here we conducted the largest multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis of CAC to date, which comprised 26,909 individuals of European ancestry and 8,867 individuals of African ancestry. We identified 11 independent risk loci, of which eight were new for CAC and five had not been reported for CAD. These new CAC loci are related to bone mineralization, phosphate catabolism and hormone metabolic pathways. Several new loci harbor candidate causal genes supported by multiple lines of functional evidence and are regulators of smooth muscle cell-mediated calcification ex vivo and in vitro. Together, these findings help refine the genetic architecture of CAC and extend our understanding of the biological and potential druggable pathways underlying CAC.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1651-1664
Number of pages14
JournalNature Genetics
Volume55
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01HL148239 and R01HL164577 to C.L.M.; R01HL142809 and R01HL159514 to R.M.; F31HL156463 to D.W.; R01HL125863 to J.L.M.B.; R01HL146860 to P.S.d.V., K01HL164687 to C.L.L.C., N.R.H., P.A.P. and L.F.B.; R01HL163972 to N.F.; P30DK063491 to J.I.R.; R01DK114183 to T.L.A.; European Union funded H2020 TO_AITION (grant 848146 to S.W.v.d.L.); Netherlands CardioVascular Research Initiative of the Netherlands Heart Foundation (CVON 2011/B019 and CVON 2017-20 (to S.W.v.d.L. and M.d.W.)—generating the best evidence-based pharmaceutical targets for atherosclerosis (GENIUS I&II)), the ERA-CVD program ‘druggable-MI-targets’ (01KL1802 to S.W.v.d.L.) and the Leducq Foundation (‘PlaqOmics’ 18CVD02 to C.L.M., J.L.M.B., G.P. and S.W.v.d.L.). The CHARGE Consortium was supported by NHLBI (grant R01HL105756). M.d.W. was supported by the Netherlands Heart Foundation and Spark-Holding BV (2019B016); Leducq Foundation (LEAN 16CVD01); Amsterdam UMC; ZonMW (Open Competition 09120011910025). A full list of the funding support for each study is provided in . A full list of acknowledged funding support for individual studies is provided in Supplementary Table . S.W.v.d.L. has received Roche funding for unrelated work. B.M.P. serves on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson. R.M. receives research funding from Angea Biotherapeutics and Amgen and serves as a consultant for Myokardia/BMS, Renovacor, Epizon Pharma and Third Pole, all unrelated to the current project. C.L.M. has received funding from AstraZeneca on an unrelated project. J.C.K. is the recipient of an Agilent Thought Leader Award (January 2022), which includes funding for research that is unrelated to the current paper. The other authors declare no competing interests.

Publication forum classification

  • Publication forum level 3

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Genetics

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