Researchers use smoking behavior to identify genes that regulate blood pressure using a technology, researchers have opened the door to complexity analysis of the human genome and found dozens of new genetic variations that affect blood pressure. Scientists have discovered new gene regions and confirmed the role of many known gene regions by observing smoking behavior. Smoking is one of the many lifestyle factors that affect blood pressure.
The study was initiated by the national heart, lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and published in the American Journal of human genetics. The researchers say its findings may eventually lead to the goal of individualized treatment of hypertension. Hypertension is the leading cause of disease and death worldwide, and the treatment of hypertension is a major public health priority. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 75 million U.S. adults have high blood pressure.
"We know that hypertension is influenced by genetic and lifestyle factors, such as smoking. Although previous genetic studies have found genes and gene regions closely related to blood pressure, they have not explored the interaction between genes and environmental factors."
Using a technique called gene-environment interaction analysis, the researchers used smoking as an environmental marker to search for zero regions in the genome associated with blood pressure. Normally, smoking causes elevated blood pressure, so the researchers ran different tests on the genomes of more than 610000 people to find out where smoking interacts with blood pressure. This is where genes regulate blood pressure.
The researchers identified 56 known gene regions and identified 83 new regions associated with blood pressure. Song explained that this finding is possible because the effect of certain genes on blood pressure only occurs under certain environmental factors, such as smoking. Without these conditions, the link between these genes and hypertension might be ignored. The same is true of the more detailed insights that smoking researchers can gather. The researchers found that the 10 newly discovered genes had an eight-fold higher effect on blood pressure levels in smokers than in nonsmokers.
A large number of research samples is the key to obtain these results. The traditional genome-wide association research does not consider the interaction between genes and the environment. The cohort came from five ancestral groups and helped to broaden the findings. Most of the gene regions previously associated with blood pressure were identified by individuals of European descent. In our study, several new regions were identified through African lineage analysis, highlighting the importance of genetic research in different populations.
Large sample analysis is possible, with researchers from the working group on the interaction between genes and lifestyles conducting heart and aging studies in the genomic epidemiology alliance. Funded by NHLBI, charge formation facilitates genome-wide association analysis, using several large longitudinal studies. In future studies, the researchers said they would use a larger sample size and investigate the effects of other lifestyle factors on blood pressure and blood lipids.
"In future studies, we hope to improve the therapeutic effect of hypertension through lifestyle research," the researchers said
