Atherosclerosis. 2026 Apr 27:120761. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2026.120761. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The co-stimulatory signaling dyad of CD40 and CD40L is a potent inducer of cardiovascular inflammation and vulnerability of atherosclerotic plaques. A cytosine-to-thymidine transition (-1C > T) in the Kozak sequence of the CD40 gene (rs1883832) lowers CD40 protein expression. Here, we interrogate whether this CD40 gene variant correlates with recurrent cardiovascular events after acute coronary syndromes.
METHODS: The Biomarkers in Acute Cardiac Care (BACC) cohort prospectively enrolled patients presenting to the emergency department with acute chest pain and suspected myocardial infarction. Genotype status (homozygous C/C or T/T, heterozygous: C/T) was determined by a TaqMan assay in 1298 patients with either confirmation of or ruled out acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The CD40 genotype-adjusted risk for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) during a median follow-up time of 5.2 years was studied by multivariate Cox regression.
RESULTS: Relative abundances of the genotypes among all participants were 55.8% for C/C, 37.1% for C/T, and 7.2% for T/T. None of the genotype variants was associated with diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipoproteinemia, or a history of coronary artery disease (CAD). T/T carriers showed a strong trend towards an increased sex- and age-adjusted risk for AMI at admission (OR 1.58, 95% CI 0.95-2.64, p = 0.078) in logistic regression analysis. MACE occurred more often in patients with the T/T genotype (HR 1.46, 95% CI 1.01-2.11, p = 0.046) compared to C/T (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.77-1.19, p = 0.70) and C/C (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.76-1.16, p = 0.54) carriers. This effect was independent of age, sex, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipoproteinemia, arterial hypertension, smoking status and left ventricular ejection fraction in multivariable regression.
CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that - unexpectedly - the T/T genotype of rs1883832 is associated with an enhanced risk for myocardial infarction and subsequent MACE. As this SNP impedes effective CD40 translation, our findings suggest a potentially protective role of CD40 in high-risk patients.
PMID:42067459 | DOI:10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2026.120761