The impact of genome-wide association studies on the pathophysiology and therapy of cardiovascular disease

Thorsten Kessler, Baiba Vilne, Heribert Schunkert

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

137 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are leading causes for death worldwide. Genetic disposition jointly with traditional risk factors precipitates their manifestation. Whereas the implications of a positive family history for individual risk have been known for a long time, only in the past few years have genome-wide association studies (GWAS) shed light on the underlying genetic variations. Here, we review these studies designed to increase our understanding of the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases, particularly coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. We focus on the newly established pathways to exemplify the translation from the identification of risk-related genetic variants to new preventive and therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular disease.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)688-701
Number of pages14
JournalEMBO Molecular Medicine
Volume8
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2016

Keywords

  • atherosclerosis
  • coronary artery disease
  • genome-wide association studies
  • myocardial infarction

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