Key result
Genome-wide association studies have identified many genetic loci influencing blood pressure, accounting for less than 5% of heritability, which inform pathways and potential druggable targets.
This review highlights that while GWAS have identified numerous blood pressure loci, they currently explain less than 5% of heritability, underscoring the need to leverage these findings for pathway understanding and drug target identification.
GWAS BP loci may guide target discovery; leaves open clinical translation pending validation.
UNLABELLED: Hypertension is a major risk factor for global mortality. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have led to successful identification of many genetic loci influencing blood pressure, although these studies account for less than 5% of heritability. While genetic discovery efforts continue, it is timely to pause and reflect on what information has been gained to date from reported loci. Knowledge from GWAS findings inform our understanding of the pathways and pleiotropy underpinning hypertension and aid in the identification of potential druggable targets. By reviewing blood pressure loci we aim to determine how much potential the current observations have for future clinical utility. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.
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Cabrera et al. (2015) conducted a review in Hypertension. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) findings was evaluated. Genome-wide association studies have identified many genetic loci influencing blood pressure, accounting for less than 5% of heritability, which inform pathways and potential druggable targets.
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