Midlife Vascular Risk Factors, Parkinson Disease, and Parkinson Disease-Dementia: The ARIC Study.

Background And Objectives: Vascular risk factors (VRFs) such as smoking, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes are associated with dementia, but their importance in Parkinson disease (PD) and PD-dementia (PDD) is less well understood. Previous studies demonstrated that smoking may be protective of PD, but its role in PDD is unclear. The primary objective was to examine the association between midlife VRFs and the risk of developing PD and PDD in older adults.

An epigenome-wide association study in the case-control study to explore early development identifies differential DNA methylation near ZFP57 as associated with autistic traits.

Background: Quantitative measures of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-related traits can provide insight into trait presentation across the population. Previous studies have identified epigenomic variation associated with ASD diagnosis, but few have evaluated quantitative traits. We sought to identify DNA methylation patterns in child blood associated with Social Responsiveness Scale score, Second Edition (SRS).

Sequencing in over 50,000 cases identifies coding and structural variation underlying atrial fibrillation risk.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a prevalent and morbid abnormality of the heart rhythm with a strong genetic component. Here, we meta-analyzed genome and exome sequencing data from 36 studies that included 52,416 AF cases and 277,762 controls. In burden tests of rare coding variation, we identified novel associations between AF and the genes MYBPC3, LMNA, PKP2, FAM189A2 and KDM5B.

The impact of common and rare genetic variants on bradyarrhythmia development.

To broaden our understanding of bradyarrhythmias and conduction disease, we performed common variant genome-wide association analyses in up to 1.3 million individuals and rare variant burden testing in 460,000 individuals for sinus node dysfunction (SND), distal conduction disease (DCD) and pacemaker (PM) implantation. We identified 13, 31 and 21 common variant loci for SND, DCD and PM, respectively.

Genetic liability for gastrointestinal inflammation disorders and association with gastrointestinal symptoms in children with and without autism.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a greater prevalence of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms than children without ASD. We tested whether polygenic scores for each of three GI disorders (ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and Crohn's disease) were related to GI symptoms in children with and without ASD. Using genotyping data (564 ASD cases and 715 controls) and external genome-wide association study summary statistics, we computed GI polygenic scores for ulcerative colitis (UC-PGS), inflammatory bowel disease (IDB-PGS), and Crohn's disease (CD-PGS).

Genetics of myocardial interstitial fibrosis in the human heart and association with disease.

Myocardial interstitial fibrosis is associated with cardiovascular disease and adverse prognosis. Here, to investigate the biological pathways that underlie fibrosis in the human heart, we developed a machine learning model to measure native myocardial T1 time, a marker of myocardial fibrosis, in 41,505 UK Biobank participants who underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Greater T1 time was associated with diabetes mellitus, renal disease, aortic stenosis, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, conduction disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Machine Learning to Understand Genetic and Clinical Factors Associated With the Pulse Waveform Dicrotic Notch.

Background: Absence of a dicrotic notch on finger photoplethysmography is an easily ascertainable and inexpensive trait that has been associated with age and prevalent cardiovascular disease. However, the trait exists along a continuum, and little is known about its genetic underpinnings or prognostic value for incident cardiovascular disease.

Methods: In 169 787 participants in the UK Biobank, we identified absent dicrotic notch on photoplethysmography and created a novel continuous trait reflecting notch smoothness using machine learning.

LMNA Variants and Risk of Adult-Onset Cardiac Disease.

Background: Genetic variants in LMNA may cause cardiac disease, but population-level contributions of variants to cardiac disease burden are not well-characterized.

Objectives: We sought to determine the frequency and contribution of rare LMNA variants to cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia risk among ambulatory adults.

Methods: We included 185,990 UK Biobank participants with whole-exome sequencing.

Rare and Common Genetic Variation Underlying the Risk of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in a National Biobank.

Importance: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young people. Although rare genetic variants are well-established contributors to HCM risk, common genetic variants have recently been implicated in disease pathogenesis.

Objective: To assess the contributions of rare and common genetic variation to risk of HCM in the general population.

Monogenic and Polygenic Contributions to QTc Prolongation in the Population.

Background: Rare sequence variation in genes underlying cardiac repolarization and common polygenic variation influence QT interval duration. However, current clinical genetic testing of individuals with unexplained QT prolongation is restricted to examination of monogenic rare variants. The recent emergence of large-scale biorepositories with sequence data enables examination of the joint contribution of rare and common variations to the QT interval in the population.

Analysis of rare genetic variation underlying cardiometabolic diseases and traits among 200,000 individuals in the UK Biobank.

Cardiometabolic diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Despite a known genetic component, our understanding of these diseases remains incomplete. Here, we analyzed the contribution of rare variants to 57 diseases and 26 cardiometabolic traits, using data from 200,337 UK Biobank participants with whole-exome sequencing.

Association of Apolipoprotein B-Containing Lipoproteins and Risk of Myocardial Infarction in Individuals With and Without Atherosclerosis: Distinguishing Between Particle Concentration, Type, and Content.

Importance: Lipid management typically focuses on levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and, to a lesser extent, triglycerides (TG). However, animal models and genetic studies suggest that the atherogenic particle subpopulations (LDL and very-low-density lipoprotein [VLDL]) are both important and that the number of particles is more predictive of cardiac events than their lipid content.

Objective: To determine whether common measures of cholesterol concentration, TG concentration, or their ratio are associated with cardiovascular risk beyond the number of apolipoprotein B (apoB)-containing lipoproteins.

Rare Coding Variants Associated With Electrocardiographic Intervals Identify Monogenic Arrhythmia Susceptibility Genes: A Multi-Ancestry Analysis.

Background: Alterations in electrocardiographic (ECG) intervals are well-known markers for arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death (SCD) risk. While the genetics of arrhythmia syndromes have been studied, relations between electrocardiographic intervals and rare genetic variation at a population level are poorly understood.

Methods: Using a discovery sample of 29 000 individuals with whole-genome sequencing from Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine and replication in nearly 100 000 with whole-exome sequencing from the UK Biobank and MyCode, we examined associations between low-frequency and rare coding variants with 5 routinely measured electrocardiographic traits (RR, P-wave, PR, and QRS intervals and corrected QT interval).

Associations Between Alcohol Intake and Genetic Predisposition With Atrial Fibrillation Risk in a National Biobank.

Background: Excess alcohol intake and inherited predisposition may increase risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). We assessed the association between alcohol intake, polygenic predisposition to AF, and incident AF in the UK Biobank, a prospective cohort study.

Methods: In 376 776 UK Biobank participants enrolled between 2006 and 2010, we tested alcohol consumption (stratified by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention acceptable range of ≤98 g/wk for women or ≤196 g/wk for men; and as a continuous variable) and an AF polygenic risk score for association with incident AF.