MRAS gene marker rs9818870 is not associated with acutecoronary syndrome in the Czech population and does notpredict mortality in males after acute coronary syndrome

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAs) focused on cardiovascular diseases reveal variants within genes which have not been analyzed through the pre-GWAs era, and whose function is often unknown. One of them is variant rs9818870 at the MRAS gene locus. OBJECTIVES: To analyze if MRAS polymorphism is associated with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) risk in a Czech population and with mortality in male patients after myocardial infarction. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 1,779 male patients with ACS (aged 55.3 ±7.9 years) and 673 female patients with ACS (aged 64.0 ±8.1 years) were genotyped for rs9818870 polymorphism using the PCR-RFLP method. In a subset of 1,221 patients, detailed diagnoses (901 subjects with STEMI, 280 subjects with NSTEMI, 40 cases with unstable angina pectoris) were recorded. In 1,614 males, records about total and cardiovascular mortality were available. RESULTS: Whether the entire populations or males and females have been analyzed separately or not, we have not confirmed the described association between DNA marker rs9818870 and ACS in Czechs (30.4% vs 29.4% carriers of the minor T allele [recessive model], p = 0.54; OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.89-1.24 for males and 32.1% vs 29.7% carriers of the minor T allele, p = 0.28; OR 1.12; 95% CI 0.91-1.37 for females). Types of the ACS (STEMI and NSTEMI) or mortality (in males only) were not associated with the analyzed polymorphism (all p > 0.34). CONCLUSIONS: The rs9818870 variant is not associated with ACS or mortality in ACS patients in the Czech Slavonic population.