Tobacco is a risk factor for coronary heart disease because it suppresses the effect of a protective gene for the arteries, according to results of a study published in the medical journal Circulation.
Cigarettes are responsible for 20% of coronary heart disease and is linked to an estimated 1.6 million deaths worldwide each year. But the precise mechanisms by which the smoking causes of coronary heart disease are not identified. To learn more about how genetics affect the interaction between smoking and heart disease, researchers at Columbia University in New York City in the United States have pooled genetic data on more than 140,000 people from 29 previous studies. They identified that the heart risk would be different in smokers and non-smokers.
Reduce the risk of coronary heart disease
Indeed, the analysis showed that a change on chromosome 15, near the gene that expresses an enzyme (ADAMTS7) produced in blood vessels, was associated with a 12% reduction in heart risk in non-smokers. However, smokers with this same variation only showed a 5% reduction in this risk.
“Our discovery suggests that treatments to neutralize this enzyme may be particularly beneficial for smokers and also for all people with an increased risk of cardiovascular illnesses“Said Dr. Muredach Reilly, professor of cardiology at Columbia University School of Medicine in New York, one of the lead authors of the study.
In future studies, researchers hope to establish exactly how variants of this gene protect against coronary heart disease and how smoking affects the activity of the gene that produces the enzyme. They will seek to understand whether reducing or inhibiting this gene can slow the progression ofatherosclerosisdue to smoking.
“This study is an important example of the emergence of precision medicine. It is part of a larger effort to determine how genetic variants act directly on the risk of coronary artery disease or through interactions between environmental and lifestyle factors, such as smoking ”, concludes the searcher.
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