‘Finding the genes’ of heart disease

Researchers at the University of Leeds have discovered that people with a certain type of gene are more likely to develop heart disease at a young age.

The findings, which come following a collaborative project between the institution and the universities of Leicester, Lubeck and Regensburg, show that changes to DNA on a number of chromosomes were associated with an increased risk of developing coronary artery disease.

It found that people who have a particular variant on chromosome nine are as likely to suffer a heart attack as people that smoke ten cigarettes each day.

Co-author of the study Professor Nilesh Samani said: “We are not talking about rare genetic variants here, but rather variants that are very common in our population. Many of these variants are carried by between a quarter and three-quarters of white Europeans. They are clearly very important.”

According to the BBC, the UK has one of the highest rates of death from heart disease in the world.