Publications by authors named "Dc Rao"

Aims: To assess the role of oral health literacy (OHL) in demand for oral healthcare services for missing teeth replacement among adult patients who are visiting the outpatient department of a teaching hospital, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Settings And Design: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a dental teaching institute, Andhra Pradesh, southern part of India.

Materials And Methods: Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a sample of adult participants was selected through systematic random method from the patients who visited the outpatient department.

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  • * We found 17 genetic loci associated with sleep duration impacting lipid levels, with 10 of them being newly identified and linked to sleep-related disturbances in lipid metabolism.
  • * The research points to potential drug targets that could lead to new treatments for lipid-related issues in individuals with sleep problems, highlighting the connection between sleep patterns and cardiovascular health.
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There is a long-standing debate about the magnitude of the contribution of gene-environment interactions to phenotypic variations of complex traits owing to the low statistical power and few reported interactions to date. To address this issue, the Gene-Lifestyle Interactions Working Group within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genetic Epidemiology Consortium has been spearheading efforts to investigate G × E in large and diverse samples through meta-analysis. Here, we present a powerful new approach to screen for interactions across the genome, an approach that shares substantial similarity to the Mendelian randomization framework.

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Although both short and long sleep duration are associated with elevated hypertension risk, our understanding of their interplay with biological pathways governing blood pressure remains limited. To address this, we carried out genome-wide cross-population gene-by-short-sleep and long-sleep duration interaction analyses for three blood pressure traits (systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressure) in 811,405 individuals from diverse population groups. We discover 22 novel gene-sleep duration interaction loci for blood pressure, mapped to genes involved in neurological, thyroidal, bone metabolism, and hematopoietic pathways.

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  • Large-scale studies on gene-environment interactions often simplify outcomes and covariates to improve data consistency, which can hinder the understanding of complex relationships, such as those between physical activity and HDL cholesterol.* -
  • The study refined a previously identified interaction between the rs295849 genotype and physical activity on HDL cholesterol levels, using datasets from the Women's Genome Health Study, UK Biobank, and Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.* -
  • Findings showed that the interaction effect was stronger when looking at medium-sized HDL particles compared to total HDL cholesterol, highlighting variations based on gender and the specific lipid metrics used.*
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  • - The study investigates how the DASH diet score influences systolic blood pressure (BP) in relation to genetic factors, analyzing data from over 127,000 participants from different population groups, primarily European.
  • - Researchers identified several genetic loci associated with interactions between an individual's genetics and their response to the DASH diet, particularly focusing on the variant rs117878928 at chromosomal location 15q25.1.
  • - Results suggest significant gene-DASH diet interactions affecting systolic BP, highlighting the need for further research in larger, more diverse populations to confirm these findings.
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  • The study focuses on apparent treatment-resistant hypertension (aTRH), defined by the need for four or more antihypertensive medications to control blood pressure in individuals.
  • Researchers analyzed genetic data from 12 cohorts using whole-genome sequencing, comparing aTRH cases to normotensive controls and treatment-responsive patients.
  • A significant genetic variant linked to hypertension was identified, and further validation of these results in larger and more diverse populations is necessary to understand its potential role in aTRH.
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  • Educational attainment is linked to cardiovascular health, and a large genomic study examined how it interacts with cholesterol and triglyceride levels in nearly 226,315 individuals across five population groups.
  • The study identified 18 new genetic variations related to lipid levels—nine for low-density lipoprotein (LDL), seven for high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and two for triglycerides (TG)—some of which interact with educational attainment.
  • Researchers also found five gene targets that potentially interact with FDA-approved drugs, suggesting a connection between genetics and drug responses related to lipid metabolism and overall health.
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  • The study investigated how genetic variations (genotype) interact with dietary habits (specifically the DASH diet score) to influence systolic blood pressure (SBP).
  • Researchers analyzed a massive dataset of genetic information from over 127,000 individuals to identify specific genetic locations (loci) that may play a role in this interaction.
  • They found significant genetic interactions with the DASH diet score, especially at a specific gene location (rs117878928), indicating that diet can affect blood pressure differently based on an individual's genetic makeup, which highlights the need for further research with more diverse populations.
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  • The CHARGE Gene-Lifestyle Interactions Working Group is exploring how gene-environment interactions affect complex traits and has initiated large-scale studies to enhance statistical power and findings.
  • A new screening method, akin to Mendelian randomization, has been developed to identify genomic interactions related to lifestyle factors like smoking and alcohol consumption on serum lipid levels.
  • The research found that such interactions contribute significantly to genetic variation, estimating that they account for 1.76% to 14.05% of the heritability of serum lipids, enhancing our understanding of genetic and environmental influences on complex traits.
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  • Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play crucial roles in regulating lipid metabolism and have been studied in relation to genetic variants and complex traits.
  • This research utilized high-coverage whole-genome sequencing of over 66,000 diverse participants to assess how rare variants in lncRNA genes affect blood lipid levels, using a statistical framework to analyze the associations.
  • The study found 83 lncRNA variants significantly linked to lipid levels, with many being independent of common genetic variations, and replicated a majority of these findings with data from another large cohort.
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  • Obesity poses a significant public health challenge and is linked to high mortality rates, with prior studies focusing mostly on European populations.
  • This research utilized whole-genome sequencing data from a diverse group of 88,873 individuals, finding 18 new signals associated with body mass index (BMI) and highlighting a novel SNP prevalent among people of African descent.
  • The study emphasizes the importance of diverse genetic data in identifying new obesity-related variants, moving us closer to personalized medical interventions for this crisis.
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  • This study examines the relationship between resting heart rate and cardiovascular diseases, identifying 493 genetic variants linked to this trait through a large-scale analysis of 835,465 individuals.
  • It highlights the significance of higher genetically predicted resting heart rates, which are associated with an increased risk of dilated cardiomyopathy but lower risk for conditions like atrial fibrillation and ischemic strokes.
  • The study also challenges previous findings on resting heart rate and all-cause mortality, suggesting earlier results may have been influenced by biases, ultimately enhancing our understanding of the biological implications of resting heart rate in cardiovascular health.
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The COVID-19 pandemic highlights an urgent need for effective antivirals. Targeting host processes co-opted by viruses is an attractive antiviral strategy with a high resistance barrier. Picolinic acid (PA) is a tryptophan metabolite endogenously produced in mammals.

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  • Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play key roles in regulating biological functions, and new genomic studies allow researchers to explore their connection to complex traits, like blood lipid levels.
  • This research involved high-coverage whole genome sequencing from over 66,000 participants, focusing on the influence of rare variants in 165,375 lncRNA genes on lipid variability.
  • The study found 83 rare lncRNA variant sets linked to blood lipid levels, with many of these associations being independent of common variants, suggesting potential new avenues for therapeutic interventions.
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This commentary briefly describes the process and steps that underlie the launching of the journal Genetic Epidemiology in 1984 and the International Genetic Epidemiology Society (IGES, to be pronounced as "I guess") in 1992.

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Background: Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery.

Results: To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N = 1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches.

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Though both genetic and lifestyle factors are known to influence cardiometabolic outcomes, less attention has been given to whether lifestyle exposures can alter the association between a genetic variant and these outcomes. The Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium's Gene-Lifestyle Interactions Working Group has recently published investigations of genome-wide gene-environment interactions in large multi-ancestry meta-analyses with a focus on cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption as lifestyle factors and blood pressure and serum lipids as outcomes. Further description of the biological mechanisms underlying these statistical interactions would represent a significant advance in our understanding of gene-environment interactions, yet accessing and harmonizing individual-level genetic and 'omics data is challenging.

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  • Common SNPs may account for 40-50% of human height variation, and this study identifies 12,111 SNPs linked to height from a large sample of 5.4 million individuals.
  • These SNPs cluster in 7,209 genomic segments, encompassing about 21% of the genome and showing varying densities enriched in relevant genes.
  • While these SNPs explain a substantial portion of height variance in European populations (40-45%), their predictive power is lower (10-24%) in other ancestries, suggesting a need for more research to enhance understanding in diverse populations.
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Purpose: To investigate the effect of Osthole (OST) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced macrophage polarization and inflammatory reaction.

Methods: The effect of different concentrations of OST on proliferative activity of RAW264.7 macrophages was examined by CCK-8 method; the effect of OST at different concentrations (6.

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Femtosecond laser-induced optical breakdown in liquids results in filamentation, which involves the formation and collapse of bubbles. In the present work, we elucidate spatio-temporal evolution, interaction, and dynamics of the filamentation-induced bubbles in a liquid pool as a function of a broad spectrum of laser pulse energies (∼1 to 800 µJ), liquid media (water, ethanol, and glycerol), and the number of laser pulses. Filament attributes such as length and diameter have been demarcated and accurately measured by employing multiple laser pulses and were observed to have a logarithmic dependence on laser energy, irrespective of the medium.

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  • Researchers studied the genetic connections to blood fats using data from 1.6 million people from different backgrounds to understand why certain fats are higher or lower in the body.
  • They looked at special genes and how they interact in the liver and fat cells, finding that the liver plays a big part in controlling fat levels.
  • Two specific genes, CREBRF and RRBP1, were highlighted as important in understanding how our bodies manage fats due to strong supporting evidence.
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Background: The availability of whole-genome sequencing data in large studies has enabled the assessment of coding and noncoding variants across the allele frequency spectrum for their associations with blood pressure.

Methods: We conducted a multiancestry whole-genome sequencing analysis of blood pressure among 51 456 Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine and Centers for Common Disease Genomics program participants (stage-1). Stage-2 analyses leveraged array data from UK Biobank (N=383 145), Million Veteran Program (N=318 891), and Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (N=10 643) participants, along with whole-exome sequencing data from UK Biobank (N=199 631) participants.

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