Lack of Association of LPA Gene Polymorphisms with Coronary Artery Disease in Pakistani Subjects

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Pakistan faces a high epidemic of CAD, and the disease burden is increasing with the passage of time. Several genetic markers have been reported to be significantly associated with CAD; one of them is the lipoprotein A gene. The aim of the current investigation was to genotype the LPA gene SNPs, rs3798220 and rs10455872, in Pakistani subjects with CAD in a case control study design. The genotyping was done by TaqMan allelic discrimination assay. The results showed that the cases had significantly higher prevalence of diabetes (64.6%), hypertension (62.1%), and smoking habits (29.5%). The level of cholesterol in cases was higher than in controls ( $208.25\pm 54.11$ vs. $175.34\pm 43.51$ , $p\le 0.0001$ ). The LDL-C was higher in cases than in controls ( $104.62\pm 37.94$ vs. $77.05\pm 21.17$ , $p\le 0.0001$ ). Similarly, triglycerides were also higher in cases than in controls ( $214.51\pm 74.60$ vs. $190.54\pm 70.26$ , $p\le 0.0001$ ), whereas HDL-C was lower in cases than in controls ( $45.13\pm 11.63$ vs. $67.9\pm 17.57$ , $p\le 0.0001$ ). For rs3798220, the risk allele (C) frequency was 0.005 in cases and 0.002 in controls. For rs10455872, the risk allele (G) frequency was 0.017 in cases and 0.014 in controls. The risk allele frequencies were not significantly different between cases and controls ( $p>0.05$ ). In conclusion, these two LPA SNPs do not contribute significantly to CAD progression and cannot be used as independent risk factors for CAD in Pakistani population.