Gene Variant Found to Triple Heart Risk in African-Americans

[Fade the Butcher]

Repeat after me: racial differences do not exist. There are no racial differences to see here. Move right along.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/11/health/10cnd-heart.html?pagewanted=print

An Icelandic genetics company says it has detected a version of a gene that more than triples the risk of heart attacks in African-Americans, a finding that is likely to sharpen the debate about the merits of race-based medicine.


The company, DeCode Genetics, first found the variant gene among Icelanders and then looked for it in three American populations, in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Atlanta.
Among Americans of European ancestry, the variant is quite common, but it causes only a small increase in risk, about 16 percent. But among African-Americans, while the variant gene was found in only 6 percent of those tested, they are 3.5 times as likely to suffer a heart attack as those who carry the normal version of the gene, a team of DeCode scientists led by Anna Helgadottir reports in an article released online today by the journal Nature Genetics. . . .

[Professor John Frink]

Care to repost the whole article? Some of us don't have access to the NY Times.

[Atlas]

Hey, of course there are racial difference, this is not breaking news.

[Charles_Rigaud]

Thats not a racial difference, why keep deluding yourselves with nonsense like this, some groups are susceptible to diseases and ailments based on factors that have nothing to do with race.

[1-800]

Thats not a racial difference, why keep deluding yourselves with nonsense like this, some groups are susceptible to diseases and ailments based on factors that have nothing to do with race.

Genes have nothing to do with race?

[Charles_Rigaud]

Genes have nothing to do with race?

The gene in question is more prevalent in whites than in blacks, it was only found in 6% of those blacks tested. The fact that it makes black more prone to heart attacks may have more to do with natural selection than race.

[cream]

The gene in question is more prevalent in whites than in blacks, it was only found in 6% of those blacks tested. The fact that it makes black more prone to heart attacks may have more to do with natural selection than race.

... which affects allele frequencies.

I don’t see how mentioning the differing frequencies of the allele between whites and blacks bolsters your argument.

The fact that blacks with this particular allele are more prone to heart attacks than whites with the same allele, speaks to epistasis. Whatever end effect this particular allele has may be mediated by other genes whose allelic frequencies differ between populations.

[Professor John Frink]

The whole article:

Genetic Find Stirs Debate on Race-Based Medicine
Author: NICHOLAS WADE

In a finding that is likely to sharpen discussion about the merits of race-based medicine, an Icelandic company says it has detected a version of a gene that raises the risk of heart attack in African-Americans by more than 250 percent.

The company, DeCode Genetics, first found the variant gene among Icelanders and then looked for it in three American populations, in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Atlanta.

Among Americans of European ancestry, the variant is quite common, but it causes only a small increase in risk, about 16 percent.

The opposite is true among African-Americans. Only 6 percent of African-Americans have inherited the variant gene, but they are 3.5 times as likely to suffer a heart attack as those who carry the normal version of the gene, a team of DeCode scientists led by Dr. Anna Helgadottir reported in an article released online yesterday by Nature Genetics.

Dr. Kari Stefansson, the company's chief executive, said he would consult with the Association of Black Cardiologists and others as to whether to test a new heart attack drug specifically in a population of African-Americans.

The drug, known now as DG031, inhibits a different but closely related gene and is about to be put into Phase 3 trials, the last stage before a maker seeks the Food and Drug Administration's approval.

Last year a drug called BiDil evoked mixed reactions after it was shown to sharply reduce heart attacks among African-Americans, first in a general study and then in a targeted study, after it failed to show efficacy in the general population. The drug, invented by Dr. Jay N. Cohn, a cardiologist at the University of Minnesota, prompted objections that race-based medicine was the wrong approach.

Geneticists agree that the medically important issue is not race itself but the genes that predispose a person to disease. But it may often be useful for physicians to take race into account because the predisposing genes for many diseases follow racial patterns.

The new variant found by DeCode Genetics is a more active version of a gene that helps govern the body's inflammatory response to infection. Called leukotriene A4 hydrolase, the gene is involved in the synthesis of leukotrienes, agents that maintain a state of inflammation.

Dr. Stefansson said he believed that the more active version of this gene might have risen to prominence in Europeans and Asians because it conferred extra protection against infectious disease.

Along with the protection would have come a higher risk of heart attack because plaques that build up in the walls of the arteries could become inflamed and rupture. But because the active version of the gene started to be favored long ago, Europeans and Asians have had time to develop genetic changes that offset the extra risk of heart attack.

The active version of the inflammatory gene would have passed from Europeans into African-Americans only a few generations ago, too short a time for development of genes that protect against heart attack, Dr. Stefansson suggested.

The DG031 drug being tested by DeCode Genetics affects a second gene, but one that is also involved in control of leukotrienes. Because the drug reduces leukotriene levels and inflammation, it may help African-Americans who have the variant of the hydrolase gene. "It would make scientific, economic and particularly political sense to have a significant part of the clinical trials done in an African-American population," Dr. Stefansson said.

A spokeswoman for the black cardiologists' group, which supported the BiDil trial, said the group's officials were not ready to discuss the new gene.

Dr. Troy Duster of New York University, an adviser to the federal Human Genome Project and a past president of the American Sociological Association, said he saw no objection to a trial, provided it focused on African-Americans with the risk-associated variant of the gene and took into account that people with ancestry from different regions of Africa might show variations in risk.

But Dr. Charles Rotimi, a genetic epidemiologist at Howard University, said a separate study of African-Americans would not be desirable. The variant gene may be overactive in African-Americans because of their greater exposure to deleterious environments, Dr. Rotimi said.

Dr. Cohn, the inventor of BiDil, said it was "always best to study a drug in a highly responsive group," rather than testing large populations where possible benefits to subgroups could be missed.

[Professor John Frink]

Dr. Stefansson said he believed that the more active version of this gene might have risen to prominence in Europeans and Asians because it conferred extra protection against infectious disease.

Along with the protection would have come a higher risk of heart attack because plaques that build up in the walls of the arteries could become inflamed and rupture. But because the active version of the gene started to be favored long ago, Europeans and Asians have had time to develop genetic changes that offset the extra risk of heart attack.

The active version of the inflammatory gene would have passed from Europeans into African-Americans only a few generations ago, too short a time for development of genes that protect against heart attack, Dr. Stefansson suggested.

Does he suggest that miscegenation suxx0rZ? Seems so.

[1-800]

The gene in question is more prevalent in whites than in blacks, it was only found in 6% of those blacks tested. The fact that it makes black more prone to heart attacks may have more to do with natural selection than race.

So racial differences arise from....

[Tyrone_Hartlan]

Repeat after me: racial differences do not exist. There are no racial differences to see here. Move right along.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/11/health/10cnd-heart.html?pagewanted=print

Mr. John Dryden, you fail to consider one salient fact: pretty much all medicines work pretty much exactly the same in pretty much all races. Genetic identity is pretty much exactly the same. Genetically, "race" does not exist. The rest is nationalist garbage.

[Felix the Cat]

I can't help but notice that "Tyrone Hartlan" anagrams to "A Northerly Tan"

How curious

[daisy]

i always thought them blacks kept getting those heart attacks from all the alcohol and stress of running them poker houses. they used to get really drunk on liquor, get really stressed out, and fist fight over a card game. back then i never would have thought it was a gene.

[Thomas777]

Mr. John Dryden, you fail to consider one salient fact: pretty much all medicines work pretty much exactly the same in pretty much all races. Genetic identity is pretty much exactly the same. Genetically, "race" does not exist. The rest is nationalist garbage.

So there is no such thing as insular populations of humans who share a common genetic heritage? That's a pretty interesting theory.

[Ambrosio Spinola]

Not to mention how these medicines are getting tested on animals before they get tried on humans...OMG...Not only there are no races but there are no species either!!!! And even then, during human trials all sorts of humans are used as guinea pigs..so that you wont see a "white medicine" not working on blacks because it would have never reached market stage without that condition. Yet..the opposite is true that races have different specialitzed diseases that need specialitzed race based medicine. ;)