An international team of researchers including scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum München has succeeded in identifying new gene variants associated with an increased risk for myocardial infarction (MI), or heart attack.
The identified genes and their underlying mechanisms provide new starting points for understanding genetic patterns in MI and for developing new treatment options. A key finding is that the MI risk is more than twice as great in individuals who carry not only one but several of the genetic markers. Three studies on genetic markers and MI risk have now been published in the current online issue of the renowned journal Nature Genetics.
In a large-scale study coordinated by the University of Lübeck, German, European and American researchers succeeded in identifying novel genetic markers associated with MI. Two institutes of Helmholtz Zentrum München - the Institute of Epidemiology (director: Prof. Dr. Dr. H. Erich Wichmann) and the Institute of Human Genetics (director: Prof. Dr. Thomas Meitinger) - were also involved in the study. The scientists performed a genome-wide scan of thousands of patients with hundreds of thousands of genetic markers. Included in the studies were MI patients from the KORA study (director: Dr. Christine Meisinger) as well as healthy control persons from the population.
"The future challenge for us will be to integrate the insights we have gained about genetic factors and lifestyle factors in order to provide effective preventive measures for the population," said Prof. Dr. Annette Peters, research group leader at Helmholtz Zentrum München.
The first of the three studies investigated a million genetic markers in 1,200 MI patients and the same number of healthy test persons. Subsequent control studies on an additional 25,000 patients and healthy persons confirmed the initial suspicion: Culprit genes for MI are located on chromosomes 3 and 12. Scientists suspect that one of these genes, the MRAS gene, plays an important role in cardiovascular biology. The second gene, the HNF1A gene, is closely associated with cholesterol metabolism.