Background/Objectives: Cardiovascular diseases are a global health issue with an increasing burden and are exacerbated by hypertension. High blood pressure is partly attributed to genetic variants that are generally not well understood or extensively studied in sub-Saharan African populations. Variants linked to blood pressure have been found through genome-wide association studies (GWASs), which were mostly conducted among European ancestry populations; however, limited research has been undertaken in Africa. The current study evaluated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of
PCSK9,
ABCA1,
LPL, and
PON1 in relation to blood pressure measurements of 1839 Ghanaian adults.
Methods: Genotypes were extracted from data generated by the H3Africa SNP array. After adjusting for sex, age, smoking, and body mass index (BMI), inferential statistics were used to investigate the relationships between SNPs and blood pressure (BP) indices. Additionally, Bonferroni correction was used to adjust for multiple testing.
Results: Diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and the minor allele T of the
PCSK9 variant (rs17111557) were positively associated at
p = 0.006 after covariate adjustments. Although this novel DBP-associated variant is located in the 3′ untranslated region (3′ UTR) of the
PCSK9 gene, in silico functional prediction suggests it is an expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) that may change the binding site of transcription factors, potentially altering the rate of transcription and impacting DBP in this Ghanaian population.
Conclusions: Our findings highlight the role of genetics in hypertension risk and the potential of discovering new therapies targeting isolated diastolic blood pressure in this rural African population.
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