We conducted a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure among 26,600 East Asian participants (stage-1) followed by replication study of up to 28,783 participants (stage-2). For novel loci, statistical significance was determined by a P<5.0×10−8 in joint analysis of stage-1 and stage-2 data. For loci reported by the previous mean arterial and pulse pressure genome-wide association study meta-analysis in Europeans, evidence of trans-ethnic replication was determined by consistency in effect direction and a Bonferroni-corrected P<1.4×10−3. No novel loci were identified by the current study. Five independent mean arterial pressure variants demonstrated robust evidence for trans-ethnic replication including rs17249754 at ATP2B1 (P=7.5×10−15), rs2681492 at ATP2B1 (P=3.4×10−7), rs11191593 at NT5C2 (1.1×10−6), rs3824755 at CYP17A1 (P=1.2×10−6), and rs13149993 at FGF5 (P=2.4×10−4). Two additional variants showed suggestive evidence of trans-ethnic replication (consistency in effect direction and P<0.05), including rs319690 at MAP4 (P=0.014) and rs1173771 at NPR3 (P=0.018). For pulse pressure, robust evidence of replication was identified for 2 independent variants, including rs17249754 at ATP2B1 (P=1.2×10−5) and rs11191593 at NT5C2 (P=1.1×10−3), with suggestive evidence of replication among an additional 2 variants including rs3824755 at CYP17A1 (P=6.1×10−3) and rs2681492 at ATP2B1 (P=9.0×10−3). Replicated variants demonstrated consistency in effect sizes between East Asian and European samples, with effect size differences ranging from 0.03 to 0.24 mmHg for mean arterial pressure and from 0.03 to 0.21 mmHg for pulse pressure. In conclusion, we present the first evidence of trans-ethnic replication of several mean arterial and pulse pressure loci in an East Asian population.

Pharmacological therapy for urolithiasis using medicinal plants has been increasingly adopted for the prevention of its recurrence. A Drosophila melanogaster model developed for translational research of urolithiasis was applied to evaluate agents with potential antilithic effects and calcium oxalate (CaOx) formation. Potential antilithic herbs were prepared in a mixture of food in a diluted concentration of 5,000 from the original extract with 0.5% ethylene glycol (EG) as the lithogenic agent. The control group was fed with food only. After 3 weeks, flies (n ≥ 150 for each group) were killed using CO2 narcotization, and the Malpighian tubules were dissected, removed, and processed for polarized light microscopy examination of the crystals. The crystal formation rate in the EG group was 100.0%. In the study, 16 tested herbal drugs reached the crystal formation rate of 0.0%, including Salviae miltiorrhizae, Paeonia lactiflora, and Carthami flos. Scutellaria baicalensis enhanced CaOx crystal formation. Two herbal drugs Commiphora molmol and Natrii sulfas caused the death of all flies. Our rapid screening methods provided evidence that some medicinal plants have potential antilithic effects. These useful medicinal plants can be further studied using other animal or human models to verify their effects.