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(Circulation. 2001;103:1042.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Adrenergic Receptor Polymorphisms and Cardiac Function (and Dysfunction)

A Failure to Communicate?

Ross D. Feldman, MD

From the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Correspondence to Dr Ross D. Feldman, London Health Sciences Center University Campus, PO Box 5339, London, ON N6A 5A5. E-mail feldmanr@lhsc.on.ca

Key Words: Editorials • receptors, adrenergic, beta • genetics • heart failure

For a number of cardiovascular diseases, it has been proposed that both the susceptibility to disease and the interindividual variability in response to treatment relates in part to genetic polymorphisms, particularly those polymorphisms for neurotransmitter and drug receptors. Perhaps the most intensively studied family of receptors are the G-protein–coupled receptors, of which the ß-adrenergic receptor is the prototype.

The ß-adrenergic receptor family members (ß₁, ß₂, and ß₃) are highly polymorphic. Further, specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms have been associated with a range of cardiovascular diseases and cardiovascular risk factors, including obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and congestive heart failure.¹ However, although a number of genetic polymorphisms of the ß-adrenergic receptor have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, ultimately the proof of the importance of these polymorphisms beyond that of a risk marker is dependant on the characterization of an intermediate phenotype that could be linked to the presentation of the disease or a response to therapy. This is the importance of the current findings from Brodde and colleagues² in this issue of Circulation.

In patients with congestive heart failure, polymorphisms of both ß₁- and ß₂-adrenergic receptors have been linked with disease expression. N-terminal polymorphisms of the ß₁-adrenoceptor have been associated with an increased risk of developing idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.³ However, most attention has been focused on single-nucleotide polymorphisms of the ß₂-adrenergic receptor. Specifically, a relatively rare polymorphism at amino acid 164 of the ß₂- adrenergic receptor (Ile164, occurring in <5% . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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