Over 200 Genetic Factors Found Linked to Heart Arrhythmias
May 27, 2020 | Biotechnology
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Hundreds of new links have been found between people’s DNA and the heart’s electrical activity, according to a study of almost 300,000 people led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, the Broad Institute of MIT, and Harvard. The research “Multi-ancestry GWAS of the electrocardiographic PR interval identifies 202 loci underlying cardiac conduction” is described in Nature Communications.
The results could one day lead to advanced screening methods to discern who is at greatest risk of developing disease, and could help reveal new genetic targets for research and drug development.
Over the past 10 years, researchers have identified many genetic factors that contribute to—or protect against—the onset of specific heart diseases. However, it has been difficult to find genetic factors associated with arrhythmias, one of the most common forms of heart disease where the heart beats abnormally.
The team of scientists from more than 140 institutions looked at data from 293,051 people across the world, studying their individual genomes and their measurements on an electrocardiogram.
The researchers specifically studied the length of time between two points on the electrocardiogram read-out known as the “PR interval,” which is associated with a number of common electrical disorders such as atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias.
The team reported report 202 locations in the genome with links to this type of electrical activity in the heart—141 of which had not been previously identified. This more than triples the number of known genetic regions linked to this type of electrical activity and explains about 62 percent of its heritability.
“The electrocardiographic PR interval reflects atrioventricular conduction, and is associated with conduction abnormalities, pacemaker implantation, atrial fibrillation (AF), and cardiovascular mortality. Here we... You can find the whole article in the GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News Blog.
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