AUTHOR=Hall Martina , Skogholt Anne Heidi , Surakka Ida , Dalen Haavard , Almaas Eivind 

TITLE=Genome-wide association studies reveal differences in genetic susceptibility between single events vs. recurrent events of atrial fibrillation and myocardial infarction: the HUNT study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cardiovascular-medicine/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2024.1372107

DOI=10.3389/fcvm.2024.1372107

ISSN=2297-055X

ABSTRACT=Genetic research into Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and Myocardial Infarction (MI) has predominantly focused on contrasting afflicted individuals with their healthy counterparts. However, this approach lacks granularity, thus overlooking subtleties within patient populations. In this study, we explore the distinction between AF and MI patients that experience only a single disease event to those experiencing recurrent events. Integrating hospital records, questionnaire data, clinical measurements, and genetic data from more than 500,000 HUNT and UKBB participants, we compare  both clinical and genetic characteristics between the two groups using GWAS meta-analyses, PheWAS-analyses, and gene co-expression networks. We find that the two groups of patients differ in both clinical characteristics and genetic risks. More specifically, recurrent AF patients are significantly younger and with a better baseline health, in terms of reduced cholesterol and blood pressure, than the single AF patients. Also, the results of the GWAS meta-analysis  indicate that recurrent AF patients seem to be at greater genetic risk for recurrent events. The PheWAS and gene co-expression network analyses highlight differences in the  functions associated with the sets of SNPs and genes for the two groups. However for MI patients, we find that those experiencing single events are significantly younger and have a better baseline health than those with recurrent MI, yet they  exhibit  higher genetic risk. The GWAS meta-analysis mostly identifies  genetic regions uniquely associated with single MI, and the PheWAS-analysis and gene co-expression networks support the genetic differences between the single MI and recurrent MI groups. In conclusion, this work has identified novel genetic regions uniquely associated with single MI and related PheWAS-analyses, as well as gene co-expression networks that support the genetic differences between the patient subgroups of single and recurrent occurrence for both MI and AF.