The Good and the Bad, Genetic Mutations

The article starts out by stating the fact that about 20% of the human population have a genetic mutation which is capable of lower their risk for a heart attack. The mutations in the gene were called DBH and involved the change from dopamine to nor-epinephrine. The article gives a better explanation as to what is going on with one of the two variables: "The hormone norepinephrine can over-stimulate the heart when it circulates in the bloodstream or is released within the heart. The interaction that lowers gene expression in turn lowers norepinephrine production. Controlling norepinephrine is important in heart attack treatment: Beta-blockers prevent activation of the norepinephrine target gene in the heart"(MNT 1). Individually these two chemicals have almost no noticeable effect in regards to lower risk for heart attack. However when combined they reduce the expression of the DBH gene which in turn increases protection against heart attacks. To be more specific people who have both of the genes have a 2/5 chance of not having a heart attack. 

The article later introduces Elizabeth Barrie, a pharmacology postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State. She believed that the two genetic mutations did not have as big of an effect in terms of reducing heart attacks as other researchers thought. She said that genes contained two different alleles that functioned the same way, but the expression of one gene may differ when compared to the other. “It turned out that the message for making DBH protein - the mRNA - is transported in sympathetic neurons to target organs and expressed there at nerve terminals where norepinephrine is needed. Therefore, we can expect a large effect of the genetic DBH variants on these local events"(Barrie MNT 1) Norepinephrine has numerous effects on our bodies and is not only important in reducing the risk for heart