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Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(8), 2017

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15805

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Genetic loci associated with heart rate variability and their effects on cardiac disease risk

Journal article published in 2017 by Ilja M. Nolte ORCID, M. Loretto Munoz, Vinicius Tragante, Azmeraw T. Amare ORCID, Rick Jansen ORCID, Ahmad Vaez ORCID, Benedikt von der Heyde ORCID, Christy L. Avery, Joshua C. Bis, Bram Dierckx, Jenny van Dongen, Stephanie M. Gogarten, Philippe Goyette, Jussi Hernesniemi, Ville Huikari and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractReduced cardiac vagal control reflected in low heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with greater risks for cardiac morbidity and mortality. In two-stage meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for three HRV traits in up to 53,174 individuals of European ancestry, we detect 17 genome-wide significant SNPs in eight loci. HRV SNPs tag non-synonymous SNPs (in NDUFA11 and KIAA1755), expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) (influencing GNG11, RGS6 and NEO1), or are located in genes preferentially expressed in the sinoatrial node (GNG11, RGS6 and HCN4). Genetic risk scores account for 0.9 to 2.6% of the HRV variance. Significant genetic correlation is found for HRV with heart rate (−0.74<rg<−0.55) and blood pressure (−0.35<rg<−0.20). These findings provide clinically relevant biological insight into heritable variation in vagal heart rhythm regulation, with a key role for genetic variants (GNG11, RGS6) that influence G-protein heterotrimer action in GIRK-channel induced pacemaker membrane hyperpolarization.