says Dr. Dawood Darbar, UIC professor of medicine and pharmacology at the College of Medicine.
‘New mutation found in a gene associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation poses a significantly increased risk for heart failure in Black people. This shows that new genetic variation might be associated with an increased risk of early-onset AFib.
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Earlier studies have demonstrated the role of several genes with variations or mutations that increased the risk of early-onset AFib in white people. One of these variants is in a gene called Titan is the largest gene in the human genome.
Gene Mutation and Atrial Fibrillation
Hence sequencing of the genes associated with increased risk of early-onset AFib was done in 227 Black and Latino patients with early-onset AFib who were seen at UI Health, UIC’s health care system. It was found that 7% of these patients had at least one genetic variation associated with an increased risk of AFib. Among these patients, 50% had a mutation in the Titan gene.
“The Titan mutation is very strongly associated with an increased risk for heart failure as well as AFib, which suggests that African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos with early-onset AFib be screened for this dangerous gene. The new gene we discovered was present in six families with two or more individuals with early-onset AFib, making this gene very suspicious. We will be looking into the significance of this variation in our future studies,” says Darbar.
This shows that a new genetic variation might be associated with an increased risk of early-onset AFib.
Source: Medindia
