scientists identify genes responsible for coronary heart disease

researchers from the new york city health system, with assistance from other scientists from both the united states and europe, found 162 total genes that were found to increase risk of heart attacks.they published their findings in the journal circulation: genomic and precision medicine .

“firstly, we have now more accurately defined the precise genes that are likely to cause coronary heart disease,” jason kovacic, executive director of the victor chang cardiac research institute at icahn and lead author of the study, said in a release . “second, we’ve identified exactly where in the body the main effect of those genes is — it might be in the heart arteries themselves that directly cause blockages, or perhaps the effect is in the liver to increase cholesterol levels, or in the blood to change inflammation. the third major achievement was to rank those genes — 162 in total — in order of priority for causing coronary heart disease.”

“we are very actively studying phactr1 in my lab as we know it causes not only coronary heart disease, but also a whole range of other vascular diseases including migraine, fibromuscular dysplasia and spontaneous coronary artery dissection .” 

“i’ll be on medication for life,” kilby said in a supplementary statement . “i also have to look after myself really well with exercise and an extremely good diet . doctors do say the genes override diet in my case, but i still do try to be really strict with that because if it can help in any way to stop future heart attacks, that can only be a good thing.”