The findings, by a large international academic consortium including University College Cork (UCC), are published in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics today (Sunday 11th September). Over one billion people worldwide have high blood pressure, a condition associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. “We do not know why most people with high blood pressure have got the condition, and our treatments reflect this”, says Professor Brendan Buckley, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at UCC. “By examining the differences in DNA sequences across the genomes of very large numbers of people, we sought to identify genes associated with blood pressure control”. The research published in Nature Genetics, examined over 120,000 individuals using the technique of genome-wide association study (GWAS). It has, according to Professor Buckley, led to the identification of five DNA sequences (loci) newly associated with pulse pressure and three with mean blood pressure. The researchers also identified 24 DNA further sequences for these two traits that are also associated with blood pressure. Their findings confirm that different pathways may be involved in causing high blood-pressure. This enabled them to construct genetic risk scores which appear to predict susceptibility to high blood pressure, and to stroke and coronary disease. The genetic characteristics newly found to be associated with these conditions may point to new treatments.

The discoveries are the fruit of a collaboration which involved UCC and over 150 institutions around the world including Harvard, Oxford and Leiden Universities.

Approximately 13 years ago, UCC President, Dr Michael Murphy (then Professor of Pharmacology), Professor Brendan Buckley and colleagues conducted a major clinical trial, PROSPER, including over 2000 people in Munster, which examined the effects of lowering cholesterol on the incidence of heart attacks over a four year period. “Blood samples which the participants in that study generously permitted us to store have allowed us to do a huge amount of research that has resulted in over 80 publications in international academic journals”, says Professor Buckley. “We have now embarked on publication of a further important body of genetic research to unravel how genes might influence the occurrence of a wide range of diseases such as osteoporosis and kidney disease using this biobank. Of course, no individual can be identified from this research.” This genetic research has been funded as a collaboration between UCC and the Universities of Leiden and Glasgow by the European Union FP7 programme.

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