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Elevated blood pressure is the leading heritable risk factor for cardiovascular disease worldwide. We report genetic association of blood pressure (systolic, diastolic, pulse pressure) among UK Biobank participants of European ancestry with independent replication in other cohorts, and robust validation of 107 independent loci. We also identify new independent variants at 11 previously reported blood pressure loci. In combination with results from a range of in silico functional analyses and wet bench experiments, our findings highlight new biological pathways for blood pressure regulation enriched for genes expressed in vascular tissues and identify potential therapeutic targets for hypertension. Results from genetic risk score models raise the possibility of a precision medicine approach through early lifestyle intervention to offset the impact of blood pressure-raising genetic variants on future cardiovascular disease risk.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/ng.3768

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nature genetics

Publication Date

03/2017

Volume

49

Pages

403 - 415

Addresses

William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

Keywords

International Consortium of Blood Pressure (ICBP) 1000G Analyses, BIOS Consortium, Lifelines Cohort Study, Understanding Society Scientific group, CHD Exome+ Consortium, ExomeBP Consortium, T2D-GENES Consortium, GoT2DGenes Consortium, Cohorts for Heart and Ageing Research in Genome Epidemiology (CHARGE) BP Exome Consortium, International Genomics of Blood Pressure (iGEN-BP) Consortium, UK Biobank CardioMetabolic Consortium BP working group, Humans, Cardiovascular Diseases, Hypertension, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Risk Factors, Blood Pressure, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Adult, Middle Aged, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Male, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genetic Loci