美国斯坦福大学科学家7日宣布，他们发现了与动脉硬化症有关的13个新基因区，使得与该病有关的基因区增加至26个。
Tim Assimes (left) and Thomas Quertermous
研究人员说，他们的发现建立在对14项有关基因研究数据分析的基础上，这些数据由150多名研究人员从世界各地搜集，包括美国、冰岛、加拿大和英国等。
动脉硬化症是造成心脏病的主要风险因素之一。为了解基因对动脉硬化症的影响，研究人员对欧洲2．2万名心脏病患者的基因图谱进行了分析，并将他们的图谱与6万名健康人的基因图谱进行了对比。在仔细查对遗传密码后，最终新发现13个与动脉硬化症有关的基因区。
斯坦福大学心血管医学教授凯特穆斯在一项新闻公报中说，新发现将帮助科学家找到产生动脉硬化症的根源，并研发出可降低罹患心脏病风险的新药。
研究报告的共同作者、医学教授阿西迈斯说，根据这些信息，医生可以在早期发现可能患心脏病的高危病人并采取相应措施，如建议病人改变生活方式或对病人进行药物干预治疗，从而降低患心脏病的风险。（生物谷Bioon.com）
Nature Genetics:欧洲、南亚和中国汉族人群冠心病的易感基因位点
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Nature Genetics, March 6, 2011 DOI: 10.1038/ng.784
Large-scale association analysis identifies 13 new susceptibility loci for coronary artery disease
We performed a meta-analysis of 14 genome-wide association studies of coronary artery disease (CAD) comprising 22,233 individuals with CAD (cases) and 64,762 controls of European descent followed by genotyping of top association signals in 56,682 additional individuals. This analysis identified 13 loci newly associated with CAD at P < 5 × 10?8 and confirmed the association of 10 of 12 previously reported CAD loci. The 13 new loci showed risk allele frequencies ranging from 0.13 to 0.91 and were associated with a 6% to 17% increase in the risk of CAD per allele. Notably, only three of the new loci showed significant association with traditional CAD risk factors and the majority lie in gene regions not previously implicated in the pathogenesis of CAD. Finally, five of the new CAD risk loci appear to have pleiotropic effects, showing strong association with various other human diseases or traits.
