Systematic review names CETP-TaqIB as one of the most consistently studied gene-diet interactions in cardiovascular disease research (BMC Cardiovasc Disord 2022)

Original title: Gene-diet interactions and cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review of observational and clinical trials

BMC Cardiovasc Disord · 20 August 2022 · 4

Roa-Díaz ZM, Teuscher J, Gamba M, Bundo M, Grisotto G, Wehrli F, Gamboa E, Rojas LZ, Gómez-Ochoa SA, Verhoog S, Vargas MF, Minder B et al.

This systematic review of gene-diet interactions and cardiovascular disease outcomes included 59 articles based on data from 29 studies, searching for studies evaluating interactions between genetic variants or genetic risk scores and food or diet intake on risk of myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, stroke, or composite cardiovascular disease. Fifty different dietary exposures and 52 different genetic factors were investigated, with alcohol intake and ADH1C variants being the most examined. Of 266 investigated diet-gene interaction tests, 50 (18.8%) were statistically significant, including the CETP-TaqIB and ADH1C variants, which interacted with alcohol intake on coronary heart disease risk. However, the review notes that significant interaction effects were found only in some articles and did not agree on the direction of effects, and most studies reporting significant interactions lacked replication or correction for multiple testing.

Original abstract

Background: Both genetic background and diet are important determinants of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Understanding gene-diet interactions could help improve CVD prevention and prognosis. We aimed to summarise the evidence on gene-diet interactions and CVD outcomes systematically.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE® via Ovid, Embase, PubMed®, and The Cochrane Library for relevant studies published until June 6th 2022. We considered for inclusion cross-sectional, case-control, prospective cohort, nested case-control, and case-cohort studies as well as randomised controlled trials that evaluated the interaction between genetic variants and/or genetic risk scores and food or diet intake on the risk of related outcomes, including myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and CVD as a composite outcome. The PROSPERO protocol registration code is CRD42019147031.

Results And Discussion: We included 59 articles based on data from 29 studies; six articles involved multiple studies, and seven did not report details of their source population. The median sample size of the articles was 2562 participants. Of the 59 articles, 21 (35.6%) were qualified as high quality, while the rest were intermediate or poor. Eleven (18.6%) articles adjusted for multiple comparisons, four (7.0%) attempted to replicate the findings, 18 (30.5%) were based on Han-Chinese ethnicity, and 29 (49.2%) did not present Minor Allele Frequency. Fifty different dietary exposures and 52 different genetic factors were investigated, with alcohol intake and ADH1C variants being the most examined. Of 266 investigated diet-gene interaction tests, 50 (18.8%) were statistically significant, including CETP-TaqIB and ADH1C variants, which interacted with alcohol intake on CHD risk. However, interactions effects were significant only in some articles and did not agree on the direction of effects. Moreover, most of the studies that reported significant interactions lacked replication. Overall, the evidence on gene-diet interactions on CVD is limited, and lack correction for multiple testing, replication and sample size consideration.

Summary written by cetpinhibition.org from the published abstract; figures as published. Page updated 19 August 2026. Methods.