Abstracts Division 1

8. Putative role of single nucleotide polymorphisms of VDR, CYP2R1 & CYP27B1 genes in cardiovascular disease patients with hypertension and diabetes

Humera Fiaz1,2,3, Friederike Ehrhart1, Fazli Rabbi Awan2, Abdul Rehman Khan3, Chris TA Evelo1, Susan LM Coort1

1 Department of Bioinformatics-BiGCaT, NUTRIM, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
2 Diabetes and Cardio-Metabolic Disorders Lab, Health Biotechnology Division, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Faisalabad, Pakistan.
3 Obesity and Diabetes Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan.

Vitamin D is an important secosteroid hormone and micronutrient. It is known for its preventive role in non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes and hypertension. The availability and physiology of vitamin D are affected by both the environment and genetics. Studies have shown an association with cardiometabolic diseases and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genes involved in vitamin D metabolism and signaling. However, the underlying mechanisms of vitamin D in ameliorating cardiometabolic disorders remain unclear. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess the effect of vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms (rs7975232 and rs2228570) and vitamin D synthesizing genes variants (rs10741657, rs10766197 of CYP2R1 and rs10877012 of CYP27B1) on serum vitamin D level and health status of CVD patients. Furthermore, the relationship between these SNPs and key vitamin D metabolites in CVD patients will be analyzed. Finally, the functional effect of the vitamin-D related polymorphisms will be investigated with network analysis. In total, 626 individuals were recruited (control = 226; patients = 400). In all subjects, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, serum levels of glucose, liver enzymes and lipids were measured and genotypes of the vitamin D-related SNPs were determined. Wilcoxon test, Kruskal Wallis test and logistic regression were performed to compare the biochemical levels and genotypes in CVD patients with their controls. For functional evaluation, an SNP-gene-pathway network was created using Cytoscape. Preliminary results showed that among CVD patients, AG and GG genotyping of rs2228570 and GA genotyping of rs10766197 is associated with hypertension (OR: 1.12; 95% CI: 0.60-2.08; p = 0.006) and diabetes (OR: 1.79; 95% CI: 1.10-2.92; p = 0.01). Moreover, rs2228570 is found to be significantly associated with systolic blood pressure. Further analysis of the results is needed to decipher the biological effect of vitamin D-related SNPs in cardiometabolic diseases. 

Part of this study is funded by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan.

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