Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) single nucleotide polymorphisms are associated with coronary heart disease and hypertension in the INTERGENE study.
OBJECTIVE
Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) exists in three distinct isoforms, each encoded by a specific gene: neuronal NOS (NOS1 gene), inducible NOS (NOS2 gene) and endothelial NOS (NOS3 gene). Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in NOS genes have been associated with cardiovascular pathology. We aimed to comprehensively investigate which NOS gene variants are most strongly associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) and hypertension, using a set of tagging SNPs with good coverage across the 3 genes.


RESULTS
CHD cases (n=560) and randomly selected population controls (n=2791) were genotyped at 58 SNPs in the NOS genes. Control individuals with systolic blood pressure ≥140, diastolic blood pressure ≥90 or on antihypertensive medication were defined as hypertensive. A structured stepwise logistic regression approach was used to select the SNPs most strongly associated with CHD and hypertension. NOS1 SNP rs3782218 showed the most consistent association with both phenotypes, odds ratio 0.59 (95% confidence interval 0.44-0.80) and 0.81 (0.67-0.97) per T-allele for CHD and hypertension respectively. For CHD, another NOS1 SNP (rs2682826) and a NOS3 SNP (rs1549758) also showed effect. For hypertension associations were seen for additional SNPs including NOS3 SNP rs3918226, previously associated with hypertension in genome-wide association study (GWAS) data.


CONCLUSIONS
We found a previously unreported association between NOS1 SNP rs3782218 and both CHD and hypertension, and confirmed NOS1 as the most important NOS risk gene for CHD. In contrast, variants in all three NOS genes were seen to be associated with hypertension in the same source population.
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Public Health & Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Electronic address: anna.levinsson@amm.gu.se.
Anna
A
Levinsson
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Public Health & Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Anna-Carin
AC
Olin
Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Lena
L
Björck
Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Annika
A
Rosengren
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Public Health & Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; AstraZeneca R&D, Mölndal, Sweden.
Fredrik
F
Nyberg
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000201:enzymology / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000201:enzymology / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
C496320:NOS1 protein, human; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I
Coronary heart disease; Epidemiology; Hypertension; Nitric oxide synthase; Single nucleotide polymorphism