Apolipoprotein L1, Cardiovascular Disease and Hypertension: More Questions than Answers.

Ethnic disparities in health outcomes exist among multiple complex diseases especially cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and kidney disease. Recent discoveries in genetics have taught us that these disparities go beyond environmental and socioeconomic factors. The discovery of ethnic-specific risk variants in the Apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) gene on chromosome 22 seen only in individuals of recent African ancestry explains a large proportion of kidney disease disparities. In addition, recent large-scale genotype-phenotype association studies have identified associations with cardiovascular disease and hypertension. This review aims to review the recent literature in this field and point toward future directions for research.