Please Help Us Unlock the Genetics of Afib in Non-Caucasians

All,

I am working with Dr. Patrick Ellinor at Harvard Medical School to make progress in understanding the genetics of afib in non-Caucasians. If you have atrial fibrillation and are Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Other Pacific Islander, please click here to learn how you can help: [www.stopafib.org]

Shannon, I hope this is OK to post - this is really important research and we need to be looking high and low to find as many non-Caucasians as possible for this research to help us understand the role of genetics in afib by race and ethnic group.

Thanks.

Mellanie True Hills

Mellanie, please will you enlighten us about the genetics of afib in caucasians ? I don't think this knowledge has arrived here as yet. I would love to have all that explained.

PeggyM

Yes, Mellanie, as a start, I too would like to know more about current research involving potential genetic mutations that underlie Afib such as that affecting human autosomal dominant hypomagnesemia mentioned the 2009 study reporting on "primary hypomagnesemia is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by renal or intestinal magnesium (Mg2+) wasting, resulting in tetany, cardiac arrhythmias, and seizures."

Especially, since magnesium wasting is still not emphasized or investigated as causal or contributory in new cases of Afib, let alone longstanding cases. That might be a start for caucasians and non-caucasians alike.

I look forward to learning more as Dr. Ellinor's research progresses. Thanks for the alert.

Jackie




Ref: [www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Mellanie, Sounds like a worthwhile project but then I am not sure if the genetics of AF has been unlocked for ANY race or ancestry. The title of the project implies that it has been solved for Caucasians.

Im sorry, but yeah when I read this post it kind of ran thru me. What difference does race make??
Anyone that suffers from this needs help.
Im sure somehow my tax dollars will be at work with this..............................
Funding should go towards a cure for all.

As I understand the project Researcher , Dr Ellinor needs non-caucasian recruits to help
complete the larger picture that also, of course, includes Caucasian afibbers as well. There are some genetic variables between various races from predispositions from everything from responding to various drugs differently to subtly different responses to various disease treatments, and some often slight variations as to how the natural course of some diseases plays out in various races.

Understanding racial/regional differences in drug assimilation, for example, underscores why you can't always take the results from a specific new drug whose early FDA approval trials were all done in Africa or Southeast Asia due to less restrictions on Big Pharma and an easier group of patients to recruit ( and less chance folks from often 3rd world countries would sue for any medical injuries)

But the point being they have found often that the drug side effect/efficacy results from other parts of the world with different racial make-ups is not always fully translatable to western country caucasian populations too. Thus, the need to stratify research too for various conditions to learn more nuanced insights into how different conditions and possible treatments for said conditions might vary within different population groups.

A larger amount of genetic data collected so far in both the US and Europe has featured Caucasian ancestry due to the predominance of this race in much of (but not all certainly) western medical research.

That, I assume, is a main reason for reaching out to recruit specifically non-caucasians in this cohort of patients sought. Not because we have solved caucasian genetic AFIB by any means, nor is it some kind of racial profiling, but simply to help fill in some lack of data needed to get a more complete picture of AFIB genetics across the board.

Learning of genetic variations not only helps in better therapeutic targeting for those races being studied in a given sub-set of races from among an overall genetic study like this, but can very much help too in a deeper understanding of these complex genetic interactions across all races, including Caucasian.

Shannon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2016 05:32AM by Shannon.

Thanks for that input, Shannon... especially: to get a more complete picture of AFIB genetics across the board. which is long overdue .... regardless of which drug might have a better influence.

Jackie

Thanks Shannon I get it. My concern is not with racial profiling at all. I would like to see genetics research done on the narrowest gene pool to first gain an understanding on the role of genetics. For example the Icelandic population using DeCode Genetics as a model instead of trying to solve the genetics on a wide population. that seems like the easiest way to go and perhaps it has been done already - I have no idea. I would love to read what's been done already.

Researcher,

In the new AFIB Report I list around 5 or 6 major new Genetics investigations that Dr Ellinor laid out during his talk at AF Symposium 2016 in Orlando in January, that are going on around the world and that are mostly collaborative in nature and looking into a wide array of genetic issues related to AFIB. The net impact of all these efforts will surely lead to watershed new and deeper understandings about the core drivers of this condition and no doubt real improvements in therapeutics too .. along with all the bio-chemical/bio-phyiscal research also going on simultaneously that I give an overview of in this latest issue of the newsletter too.

Shannon

Thanks Shannon - will get subscription.

Caucasian and "non-Caucasians" often have very different diets. Wondering if diet is being considered in the studies. In other parts of the world, the various races have diets based on what is traditional and what is available and what the cost is. In North American, we tend to eat an awful lot of less than healthy foods, much genetically modified as well.

I have always tried to maintain a healthy diet, albeit not necessarily in keeping with my level of activity (I am overweight). Much fruits, vegetables, grains, chicken, fish. Little to no red meats and have always avoided fats of all kinds like the plague. I was pleased to hear from Dr. Verma AFTER my catheter ablation 6 weeks ago that they saw no signs of arteriosclerosis in this 60 year old male nor any signs of scarring nor muscle damage inside my heart. My father passed away two years ago in his 95th. year - diet was very high in animal fats/red meats early on, but after his heart attack and bypass surgery 50 years ago the diet changed completely.

Anyway, sorry to babble on. Just curious to know if the studies will consider WHERE the subject lives and what they are eating. Would be very interesting.

Murray L

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Herein lies opinion, not professional advice, which all are well advised to seek.