Published in

Elsevier, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 4(63), p. 358-368, 2014

DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2013.09.025

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Human Heart Rate

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

To understand the role of genetic variation in the catecholamine biosynthetic pathway for control of human heart rate (HR) BACKGROUND: Human HR is an integrated cardiovascular trait predictive of morbidity and survival. Since the autonomic pathway exerts rapid control over the heart, we probed the role of heredity in control of HR, focusing on a component of the autonomic sympathetic pathway already predictive of outflow responses: Cytochrome b561 (CYB561), the electron shuttle in catecholamine vesicle membranes for transmitter biosynthesis METHODS: We studied hereditary control of HR with the twin pair design, at rest and during environmental (cold) stress. SNP disruption of a micro-RNA recognition motif in the human CYB561 3'-UTR was identified computationally, and its differential effect on gene expression was demonstrated in a transfected luciferase reporter / 3'-UTR variant. We exposed of stem-cell-derived human embryoid bodies to the micro-RNA mimic or antagomir oligonucleotides, and observed effects on contraction rate in proto-hearts RESULTS: Substantial heritability (h2) was demonstrated, by twin pair variance components, for both basal/resting HR (h2=50.9±6.4% of trait variation, p=2.47E-10) and stress-augmented HR (h2=55.1±5.9%, p=8.79E-13), and the two HR traits shared genetic determination (genetic covariance ρG=0.747±0.058, p=2.85E-09). CYB561 displayed one common genetic variant in the transcript region: A+1485G (rs3087776), in the 3'-UTR, 1485 bp downstream of the termination codon, in a conserved region, with the A-allele ancestral in primates. In a twin/sibling sample (n=576), A+1485G influenced HR, both at rest (p=0.010) and after environmental stress (p=0.002), with the minor (A) allele displaying a recessive effect with lower HR. The effect of A+1485G on HR was extended by meta-analysis into two additional population samples (total n=2579), and the influence remained directionally consistent and significant (p=0.007). A+1485G disrupted a micro-RNA (hsa-miR-1294) recognition motif in the 3'-UTR (with AG) was demonstrated in a transfected luciferase reporter / human 3'-UTR variant system in two different neuronal/neuroendocrine cell types, and the micro-RNA effect was further documented by co-transfection of a hsa-miR-1294 mimic, yielding an exaggerated decline in expression of the A-allele (better match) reporter (p=4.3E-05). Similar findings of differential 3'-UTR allelic susceptibility to miR-1294 were noted during expression of the full-length human CYB561 mRNA with its cognate 3'-UTR. Finally, exposure of stem-cell-derived human embryoid bodies to miR-1294 mimic or antagomir oligonucleotides yielded directionally opposite effects on contraction rate in proto-hearts CONCLUSIONS: HR is a substantially heritable trait, with genetic influence by variation in the adrenergic pathway, here shown for mRNA translational control at the CYB561 step of transmitter formation. The results have implications for potentially modifiable autonomic pathways that influence this risk trait in the population.