To explore the relationship between sequence variants affecting blood lipids and coronary artery disease (CAD), Helgadottir et al. examined rare and low-frequency variants for effects on non-HDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in a large cohort. In total, 13 rare and low-frequency sequence variants with large effects on lipid levels were identified, in addition to 14 previously reported variants. The causality analysis using genetic risk scores demonstrated an effect of non-HDL cholesterol, but not HDL cholesterol or triglycerides, on the pathogenesis of CAD. Furthermore, the results indicate that non-HDL cholesterol confers an additional risk of CAD beyond that associated with LDL cholesterol.
References
Helgadottir, A. et al. Variants with large effects on blood lipids and the role of cholesterol and triglycerides in coronary disease. Nat. Genet. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3561 (2016)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huynh, K. Non-HDL cholesterol confers increased risk of CAD. Nat Rev Cardiol 13, 381 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2016.83
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2016.83
