Protein identification for stroke progression via Mendelian Randomization in Million Veteran Program and UK Biobank.

Background

Individuals who have experienced a stroke, or transient ischemic attack, face a heightened risk of future cardiovascular events. Identification of genetic and molecular risk factors for subsequent cardiovascular outcomes may identify effective therapeutic targets to improve prognosis after an incident stroke.

Methods

We performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) (N

Results

Two variants were significantly associated with subsequent cardiovascular events: rs76472767 (OR=0.75, 95% CI = 0.64-0.85, p= 3.69x10

Conclusions

We found evidence that two proteins with little effect on incident stroke appear to influence subsequent MACE after incident AIS. These associations suggest that inflammation is a contributing factor to subsequent MACE outcomes after incident AIS and highlights potential novel targets.