Study Shows Increased Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease in People from West Africa

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the Human Hereditary and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Kidney Research Network reported that people from West Africa with one genetic risk variant in the apolipoprotein LI (APOL1) are more at risk for kidney disease, specifically for chronic kidney disease and focal segmental apolipoprotein LI (FSGS). Although it’s already been discovered that African Americans with genetic variants were at increased risk for CKD, links were never established to West Africa specifically.

The connection to West African regions allows researchers to better understand African American’s risks based on their ancestry.

As reported by Inside Precision Medicine, over 8,000 people participated in the study from the nations of Ghana and Nigeria, and more than half of the participants were diagnosed with CKD.  The study revealed that approximately one-third of the sample carried APOL1 variants.  It was previously believed that individuals needed to have more than one copy of the variants to be at higher disease risk, now proving only one copy increases the risk.

APOl1 variants also increase the risk of people developing FSGS by 61% for those with one variant and 84% for those will multiple.  FSGS is a kidney disease that causes scarring in the glomeruli or the kidney’s filtering units.

According to Dr. Adebowale A. Adeyemo, MD and deputy director of the Center for Genomics and Global Health at NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute, the results of this study emphasize the importance of considering ancestry, ethnicity and location when understanding the cause of disease and ultimately developing treatment.  Americans with African, Hispanic and Native American ancestry experience CKD at higher rates than others and understanding genetic predisposition can increase opportunities for early intervention.

Source: Inside Precision Medicine

Additional Sources: The New England Journal of Medicine