Mutations in APOC3 cause low triglycerides and protect against IHD, and recent pharmacological APOC3-inhibition reported major reductions in plasma triglycerides.
Second, we tested whether loss-of-function mutations in APOC3, which were associated with reduced levels of nonfasting triglycerides, were also associated with reduced risks of ischemic vascular disease and ischemic heart disease.
Likelihood ratio test showed a strong interaction for increasing risk of early IHD between the presence of ApoC3 and 9p21.3 locus with hypertriglyceridemia (p=0.0008, 0.0011) as well as between 9p21.3 locus and smoking (p=0.0010) after correction for multiple testing.