Great Progress In Heart Disease Gene Research, But More To Do, Says BHF

Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Also Included In: Genetics
Article Date: 09 Feb 2009 - 3:00 PST

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New genetic variants that increase the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease and heart attacks are published in three studies in Nature Genetics today.

In response to the studies involving British Heart Foundation (BHF) Professors Nilesh Samani and Stephen Ball and part-funded by the charity, Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the BHF, said:

"These studies demonstrate the power of big international collaborations to unearth new clues on the causes of heart attacks. Our scientists are making excellent progress in this field but genetic testing to predict heart attack risk is still a long way off.

"Vital research is now trying to get to grips with how and why these genetic traits increase heart attack risk and whether new treatments can be devised to counteract them.

"Our thanks go to the thousands of heart patients who provided samples of their DNA for the BHF's Family Heart Study, which contributed to these studies."

Issued in response to three papers published in Nature Genetics: - "Genome-wide haplotype association study identifies the SLC22A3-LPAL2-LPA gene cluster as a risk locus for coronary artery disease " by Tregouet et al. DOI: 10.1038/ng.314

- "New susceptibility locus for coronary artery disease on chromosome 3q22.3" by Erdmann et al. DOI: 10.1038/ng.307

- "Genome-wide association of early-onset myocardial infarction with single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variants" by the Myocardial Infarction Genetics Consortium. DOI: 10.1038/ng.327

- For information about the BHF Family Heart Study, BHF Professor Nilesh Samani's work at the University of Leicester, and BHF Professor Stephen Ball's work at the University of Leeds visit here and here.

- The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is the nation's heart charity, dedicated to saving lives through pioneering research, patient care, campaigning for change and by providing vital information. But we urgently need help. We rely on donations of time and money to continue our life-saving work. Because together we can beat heart disease.

The British Heart Foundation

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