Ethnic similarities in genetic polymorphisms associated with atrial fibrillation: Far East Asian vs European populations

Background: In European ancestry, 111 genetic loci were identified as associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). We explored the reproducibility of those single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis of Far East Asian populations. Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of the Korean AF network and Japanese AF data sets (9118 cases and 33 467 controls) by an inverse-variance fixed-effects model. We compared the results with 111 previously reported SNPs proven in Europeans after excluding 36 missing loci and a locus with a minor allelic frequency (MAF) < 0.01 in the European population. Results: Among remaining 74 loci, 29 loci were replicated at a P <.05, and 17 of those loci were newly found in the Far East Asian population: 3 loci with a P < 5×10⁻⁸ (METTL11B at 1q24, KCNN2 at 5q22 and LRMDA at 10q22), 4 loci at the threshold of the Bonferroni correction of P = 4.5 × 10⁻⁴ ~ 5×10⁻⁸ (KIF3C at 2p23, REEP3, NRBF2 at 10q21, SIRT1, MYPN at 10q21 and CFL2 at 14q13) and 10 SNPs with a P =.05 ~ 4.5 × 10⁻⁴. Among 18 AF loci with a MAF< 0.01 in the Far East Asian populations, 2 loci (GATA4 at 8q23 and SGCG at 13q12) were replicated after a fine mapping. Twenty-seven AF loci, including a locus, which had a sufficient sample size to get a power of over 80% (with a type 1 error α = 4.5 × 10⁻⁴), were not replicated in the Far East Asian populations. Conclusions: We newly replicated 19 AF-associated genetic loci in the European descent among the Far East Asian populations. It highlights the extensive sharing of AF genetic risks across Far East Asian populations.