Daily Archives: February 21, 2014

CHOP Researcher Co-Leads Study Finding Genes that Affect Blood Pressure

Posted: February 21, 2014 at 7:44 pm

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Newswise Philadelphia, Feb. 20, 2014 A large international study analyzing genes in tens of thousands of individuals has discovered 11 new genetic signals associated with blood pressure levels. Ten of those signals are in or very near genes encoding proteins that appear to be likely targets for drugs already in existence or in development.

The fact that most of these new gene signals are druggable targets offers the possibility of expedited pharmaceutical development of therapeutics for high blood pressure, a serious risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, said geneticist Brendan J. Keating, D. Phil., of The Center for Applied Genomics at The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, co-senior author of the study. Some of the protein targets already are targets of existing drugs for other diseases, while others are the focus of drugs currently in early-phase clinical trials or under preclinical development.

Keating collaborated with two other senior co-authors, Folkert W. Asselbergs, M.D., Ph.D., of University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, and Patricia B. Munroe, Ph.D., of Queen Mary University, London, U.K. The study appears online today in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Study co-authors were from the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Ireland.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, a chronic medical condition, is a well-known risk factor for heart disease, stroke, peripheral artery disease and chronic kidney disease. It is a complex condition, affected by many different genes. Because not all patients respond well to current blood pressure medications and other treatments, and other patients require combinations of three or more drugs, there is a substantial unmet need for improved medicines.

In the current study, the researchers performed a discovery analysis of DNA from more than 87,000 individuals of European ancestry. They then assessed their initial findings in a replication test, using an independent set of another 68,000 individuals.

The study team confirmed 27 previously discovered gene signals associated with blood pressure, and discovered 11 novel genetic signals. When the researchers used pharmacological databases to analyze potential targets in the discovered genetic regions, they found that gene products associated with 10 of the genes were predicted to be targets for small-molecule drugs. Two genes, KCNJ11 and NQO1, in fact, are already currently targeted by existing approved drugs. If clinicians can reposition existing drugs to treat some patients with hypertension, this will save significant time in drug development, as they wont be starting development from scratch, said Keating.

Keating added that other gene signals discovered in the study are associated with candidate drugs currently under development within pharmaceutical companies, and it may be possible that they can be repositioned as blood pressure therapeutics.

He stressed that even with possible repositioning, much research remains to be done to determine which drug candidates are effective against hypertension, possibly in personalized treatments based on patients genetic makeup. Keating added that the list of genes affecting blood pressure will likely grow as research continues.

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CHOP Researcher Co-Leads Study Finding Genes that Affect Blood Pressure

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Processes of Recombinant DNA Technology Part 1 512 1 – Video

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Processes of Recombinant DNA Technology Part 1 512 1

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Processes of Recombinant DNA Technology Part 1 512 1 - Video

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43. Kevin Ahern’s Biochemistry – DNA Repair and Review Session – Video

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43. Kevin Ahern #39;s Biochemistry - DNA Repair and Review Session
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ANUNNAKI DNA GIANT Reptile domain UPDATE 2014 Review facts – Video

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| Life Stuff | Extracting DNA From Strawberry’s | – Video

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Video extraccin DNA – Video

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Video extraccin DNA
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By: 285MA

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GENETTIK- D.N.A feat Materia und Lance Butters – Video

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GENETTIK- D.N.A feat Materia und Lance Butters
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Chakra Healing Meditation Subliminal Chakra Repair DNA – Video

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Georges St-Pierre discusses Takedown: The DNA of GSP and Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Video

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Georges St-Pierre discusses Takedown: The DNA of GSP and Captain America: The Winter Soldier
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South Africa to Fight Crime With New DNA Law

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It took a distraught Lindie Mdluli several days to summon the courage to go to a South African police station after she was raped in 2007. When she got there, Mdluli says that police officers didn't discuss the kind of investigative DNA work that she had seen on television detective shows.

"Nobody told me about crime-scene DNA," said 37-year-old Mdluli, whose assailant was arrested but later released. "From watching TV, I thought they were going to ask for my clothes, but nobody asked."

Mdluli's story of failed opportunities to build a criminal case is common in South Africa, which struggles with high rates of rape and murder. In a rare bright spot, a new law will expand a state DNA database used to fight crime by compelling police to take samples from convicted offenders as well as suspects in crimes ranging from homicide to theft, a major undertaking that will test the nation's troubled police force.

Dozens of countries have legislation similar to the so-called DNA Act, which was signed by President Jacob Zuma on Jan. 27. The goal is to match more offenders, including many who break the law more than once, with their crimes, exonerate the wrongly accused and crack cold cases. It will take a while to implement nationwide. Some 100,000 police are to receive training in the collection of genetic evidence; education starts in April and is expected to last five years.

While South Africa's forensic experts are highly skilled, police on the beat have been tarnished by cases of corruption, mismanagement and even violent crimes. Last year, a South African magistrate harshly criticized a police detective for shoddy work in the murder investigation of Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee athlete who says he killed his girlfriend after mistaking her for an intruder in his home. Pistorius' murder trial starts March 3.

Last week, top South African police officials said they were committed to enforcing the DNA Act during a forensic science conference in Pretoria, the capital.

Activist and lawyer Vanessa Lynch said of skepticism of the police: "I just want to put a positive spin, instead of it becoming a mudslinging match against the police."

Lynch co-founded the DNA Project, an advocacy group that campaigned for the new South African law, after her father, John, was killed in his Johannesburg home in 2004. His clothes, a potentially valuable source of DNA samples, were discarded. Police did not take DNA samples from bottles from which the attackers had been drinking before the murder. Family and friends cleaned up the crime scene before investigators arrived, inadvertently destroying evidence.

The new law will give rape victims, including children, "a voice to speak for them," said Mdluli, the rape victim who was a panelist at a Johannesburg conference last week on the measure. She recalled her discomfort at pitting her word against her alleged assailant, a man she knew, without the support of DNA evidence. She eventually dropped the case.

Another woman at the conference, Karen Howell, immediately had DNA samples taken after she was raped in 2011 in her Johannesburg home, set up a neighborhood network to track her two assailants, called police to arrest one of the men after she saw him walking in a street and hounded police until they put a more responsive investigator on her case. Last year, the two attackers received lengthy jail terms.

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South Africa to Fight Crime With New DNA Law

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