Association between Genetic Variants of Nitric Oxide/cGMP Pathway and Susceptibility to Hypertension in Kermanshah Province

Hypertension is a global health challenge due to its high prevalence and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. It is a multifactorial disease in which both genetic and environmental factors are involved. So far, a number of genes and pathways have been proposed to be associated with HTN, including the nitric oxide/cGMP pathway. To further clarify the role of NO /cGMP in the pathogenesis of HTN and also to find genetic determinants of predisposition to HTN in Kermanshah province, Iran, we aimed to investigate the association between three key points in nitric oxide signaling pathway, namely eNOS, GUCY1A3, and PDE1A genes, and susceptibility to hypertension.

In this case-control study, a total of 130 patients and 110 healthy subjects were enrolled. Three polymorphisms (rs1799983 in eNOS gene, rs13139571 in GUCY1A3 genes and rs16823124 in PDE1A gene) were investigated by PCR-RFLP method. Data were then statistically analyzed.

This study showed a significant association between the genotypic and allelic frequencies of the rs1799983 polymorphism in the eNOS gene and the rs13139571 gene in GUCY1A3 (P<0.05), while there was no significant association with PDE1A (P>0.05). However, the interaction with the other two SNPs may confer susceptibility to hypertension.