Interactions Between Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Genetic Variants in the ChREBP Locus on Lipoprotein Concentrations in the UK Biobank: A Replication Study

Abstract Objectives A meta-analysis of 11 CHARGE cohorts (N = 63,599) suggested that genetic variants within or near the CHREBP locus may modify the associations between sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) concentrations. The study objective was to replicate these findings in a large independent cohort. Methods Blood lipids and 24-hour recalls were available for 57,794 adults of European ancestry in the UK Biobank (2006-‘10). SSBs included “squash” and “fizzy” drinks derived from a single 24-hr recall. A total of 875 SNPs within or near the CHREBP locus were identified and included in this analysis. Associations between these SNPs and HDL-C and TG concentrations were quantified among participants who did not report SSB consumption (non-consumers, n = 45,866), reported ≥0.5 servings/day of SSB (consumers, n = 11,928), and a subset of consumers who reported ≥2 servings/day of SSB (high consumers, n = 3742). Interaction between SSB and selected SNPs on HDL-C and TG concentrations was evaluated by examining the difference in beta coefficients between strata. Results were considered statistically significant at a Bonferroni-corrected pinteract < 0.0001 (0.05/499 effective tests). Results A significant interaction between SSB consumption and TBL2-rs71556729 on HDL-C concentration previously observed in the meta-analysis was replicated in UK Biobank. However, we observed a stronger interaction for a SNP in high linkage disequilibrium (R2 = 0.93) FZD9-rs34821369 (MAF = 0.03, pinteract = 8.2E-05) with TBL2-rs71556729 (MAF = 0.03, pinteract = 0.0004). Among only SSB consumers, each additional minor G allele at FZD9-rs34821369 was associated with mean HDL-C concentrations 1.63 mg/dL (SE = 0.53, P = 0.002) higher than those with the major T allele. Conclusions Our results suggest that adults with the minor allele at FZD9-rs34821369 may be protected against SSB-induced low HDL-C concentrations. These results are consistent the findings from a prior meta-analysis of 11 cohorts. Funding Sources NIH, AHA, USDA-ARS. This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource (Application Number 35,835).