A Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism in C12orf43 Region is Associated with the Risk of Coronary Artery Disease in a Pakistani Cohort

Mutations of mtDNA in some Vascular and Metabolic Diseases

BACKGROUND

The present review article considers some chronic diseases of vascular and metabolic genesis, the causes of which may be mitochondrial dysfunction. Very often, in the long course of the disease, complications may occur, leading to myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke and, as a result, death. In particular, a large percentage of human deaths nowadays belongs to cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease (CHD), arterial hypertension, cardiomyopathies, and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the present review was the analysis of literature sources, devoted to an investigation of a link of mitochondrial DNA mutations with chronic diseases of vascular and metabolic genesis.

RESULTS

The analysis of literature indicates the association of the mitochondrial genome mutations with coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and various types of cardiomyopathies.

CONCLUSION

The detected mutations can be used to analyze the predisposition to chronic diseases of vascular and metabolic genesis. They can also be used to create molecular-cell models necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs developed for the treatment of these pathologies. MtDNA mutations associated with the absence of diseases of vascular and metabolic genesis could be potential candidates for gene therapy of the said diseases.

Screening druggable targets and predicting therapeutic drugs for COVID-19 via integrated bioinformatics analysis

BACKGROUND

Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China, numerous research institutions have invested in the development of anti-COVID-19 vaccines and screening for efficacious drugs to manage the virus.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the potential targets and therapeutic drugs for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 through data mining and bioinformatics.

METHODS

We integrated and profoundly analyzed 10 drugs previously assessed to have promising therapeutic potential in COVID-19 management, and have been recommended for clinical trials. To explore the mechanisms by which these drugs may be involved in the treatment of COVID-19, gene-drug interactions were identified using the DGIdb database after which functional enrichment analysis, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, and miRNA-gene network construction were performed. We adopted the DGIdb database to explore the candidate drugs for COVID-19.

RESULTS

A total of 43 genes associated with the 10 potential COVID-19 drugs were identified. Function enrichment analysis revealed that these genes were mainly enriched in response to other invasions, toll-like receptor pathways, and they play positive roles in the production of cytokines such as IL-6, IL-8, and INF-β. TNF, TLR3, TLR7, TLR9, and CXCL10 were identified as crucial genes in COVID-19. Through the DGIdb database, we predicted 87 molecules as promising druggable molecules for managing COVID-19.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this work may provide new insights into COVID-19 mechanisms and treatments. Further, the already identified candidate drugs may improve the efficiency of pharmaceutical treatment in this rapidly evolving global situation.

Genetic analysis of hsCRP in American Indians: The Strong Heart Family Study

Background

Increased serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), an important component of the innate immune response, are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) have been identified which are associated with CRP levels, and Mendelian randomization studies have shown a positive association between SNPs increasing CRP expression and risk of colon cancer (but thus far not CVD). The effects of individual genetic variants often interact with the genetic background of a population and hence we sought to resolve the genetic determinants of serum CRP in a number of American Indian populations.

Methods

The Strong Heart Family Study (SHFS) has serum CRP measurements from 2428 tribal members, recruited as large families from three regions of the United States. Microsatellite markers and MetaboChip defined SNP genotypes were incorporated into variance components, decomposition-based linkage and association analyses.

Results

CRP levels exhibited significant heritability (h² = 0.33 ± 0.05, p<1.3 X 10⁻²⁰). A locus on chromosome (chr) 6, near marker D6S281 (approximately at 169.6 Mb, GRCh38/hg38) showed suggestive linkage (LOD = 1.9) to CRP levels. No individual SNPs were found associated with CRP levels after Bonferroni adjustment for multiple testing (threshold <7.77 x 10⁻⁷), however, we found nominal associations, many of which replicate previous findings at the CRP, HNF1A and 7 other loci. In addition, we report association of 46 SNPs located at 7 novel loci on chromosomes 2, 5, 6(2 loci), 9, 10 and 17, with an average of 15.3 Kb between SNPs and all with p-values less than 7.2 X 10⁻⁴.

Conclusion

In agreement with evidence from other populations, these data show CRP serum levels are under considerable genetic influence; and include loci, such as near CRP and other genes, that replicate results from other ethnic groups. These findings also suggest possible novel loci on chr 6 and other chromosomes that warrant further investigation.