Cardiovascular endocrinology: Lipids and cardiovascular disease risk: genetic insights.

摘要

Two multicenter teams have used data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to unravel the link between cardiovascular disease risk and variation in blood lipid levels. Cardiovascular disease risk is heavily influenced by the levels of lipids-LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides-in the blood. Identification of genetic variants associated with disruptions in levels of blood lipids is hoped to provide biologic and, ultimately, therapeutic insights, but Teslovich et al. wanted to find out if GWAS can really deliver. Namely, can the strategy help identify genes of biological relevance, provide information of clinical relevance that can be harnessed to help identify novel drug targets and determine loci important in different global populations.