Publications by authors named "Zachary P Nicholas"

BACKGROUND: Total cholesterol was among the earliest identified risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD). We sought to identify genetic variants in six genes associated with lipid metabolism and estimate their respective contribution to risk for CHD. METHODS: For 6 lipid-associated genes (LCAT, CETP, LIPC, LPL, SCARB1, and ApoF) we scanned exons, 5' and 3' untranslated regions, and donor and acceptor splice sites for variants using Hi-Res Melting® curve analysis (HRMCA) with confirmation by cycle sequencing.

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Objective: The aim of this study is to discover common variants in 6 lipid metabolic genes and construct and validate a genetic risk score (GRS) based on the joint effects of genetic variants in multiple genes from lipid and other pathobiologic pathways.

Background: Explaining the genetic basis of coronary artery disease (CAD) is incomplete. Discovery and aggregation of genetic variants from multiple pathways may advance this objective.

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Background: Coronary heart disease, including its clinical manifestation, myocardial infarction (MI), is a common, complex disease with a substantive genetic component. State-of-the-art genetic epidemiology evaluates thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in association with disease cases and controls. In an independent but demographically similar population, this study tested 6 SNPs that were previously reported to be associated with MI.

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Background: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) genes may be associated with myocardial infarction (MI) and coronary artery disease (CAD), but studies of multiple MMP genes and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) are scarce. Furthermore, differentiation of predictive ability by end point (MI vs CAD) has not been addressed. This study evaluated the association with MI of SNPs in genes encoding MMPs 1, 2, 3, and 9 and TIMPs 1, 2, and 3.

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Warfarin anticoagulation therapy is complicated by its narrow therapeutic index and by wide inter-individual differences in dosing requirements arising, in part, from genetic factors. The present report describes the development, validation and feasibility testing of a rapid genotyping assay that concurrently detects the CYP2C9*2 and *3 variants along with the VKORC1 C1173T polymorphism. The study employed melting curve analysis using labeled probes and compared two detection instruments (the HR-1 and the R.

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