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A Review of Gene-by-Air Pollution Interactions for Cardiovascular Disease, Risk Factors, and Biomarkers
Citation:
Ward-Caviness, C. A Review of Gene-by-Air Pollution Interactions for Cardiovascular Disease, Risk Factors, and Biomarkers. Human Genetics. Springer Nature, New York, NY, 138(6):547-561, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-019-02004-w
Impact/Purpose:
This is a review of the current literature on gene-by-air pollution interactions associated with cardiovascular diseases. It provides a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge and evaluations of existing gaps and next steps for the field.
Description:
Air pollution is recognized as causal factor in cardiovascular disease (CVD) and is associated with multiple CVD risk factors. Substantial research effort has been invested in understanding the linkages between genetic variation and CVD risk, resulting in over 50 CVD-associated genetic loci. More recently, gene-air pollution interaction studies have quantified the contribution of genetic variation to inter-individual heterogeneity in air pollution health risks, and aided in elucidating mechanisms of air pollution exposure health risks. Here, we perform a comprehensive review of gene-air pollution interaction studies for CVD, as well as risk factors and biomarkers for CVD. The literature review revealed that most published interaction studies have been candidate gene studies, causing observed interactions to cluster in a few genes related to detoxification (GSTM1 and GSTT1), inflammation (IL-6), iron processing (HFE), and microRNA processing (GEMIN4 and DGCR8). There have been a few genome-wide interaction studies with results indicating that that interactions extend beyond commonly considered genetic loci. Gene-air pollution interactions are observed for exposure periods ranging from hours to years and a variety of air pollutants including particulate matter, gaseous pollutants, and pollutant sources such as traffic. Though the existing evidence for the existence of relevant gene-air pollution interactions for CVD outcomes is substantial, it could be strengthened by improved replication and meta-analyses as well as functional validation.
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DOI: A Review of Gene-by-Air Pollution Interactions for Cardiovascular Disease, Risk Factors, and Biomarkers