Genome-wide interaction study of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and alcohol consumption on blood pressure: The Ansan and Ansung study of the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES)

Hypertension is a common disease worldwide. Alcohol consumption is one of the risk factors for hypertension, however, it is unclear how alcohol consumption elevates blood pressure. Blood pressure could be affected by interactions between genetic variations and alcohol consumption. Thus, we performed a genome-wide interaction study (GWIS) to assess the effect of gene-alcohol consumption interaction on blood pressure among adults aged ≥40 years from the Ansan and Ansung cohort study (n = 6,176), a part of the Korean Genome Epidemiology Study (KoGES). As a result, rs1297184, single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in locus LGR5 was significant (P_GWIS = 8.78 × 10⁻⁹) in GWIS analysis on diastolic blood pressure, but not on systolic blood pressure. However, there was a heteroscedasticity of alcohol consumption. In the GWIS analysis, applying the inverse-variance weighting to correct the systematic inflation slightly attenuated the strength of interaction (P_{GWIS_IVW} = 7.14 × 10⁻⁸). This interaction was replicated in the Health Examinees cohort (p =.026), a large-scale community-based cohort (n = 18,708). In conclusion, we identified a possible novel interaction between an SNP (rs1297184) and alcohol consumption on blood pressure.