Role of the pyrin M694V (A2080G) allele in acute myocardial infarction and longevity: a study in the Sicilian population

Abstract: A proinflammatory genotype seems to contribute significantly to the risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD). Conversely, the sus-ceptibility alleles to inflammatory disease should be infrequent in the genetic background favoring lon-gevity. In fact, in a modern environment, attain-ment of longevity is facilitated by an anti-inflam-matory status. To evaluate whether inflammatory alleles of pyrin, the gene responsible for familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) may play an opposite role in CHD and in longevity, we examined three FMF-associated mutations, M694V (A2080G), M694I (G2082A), and V726A (T2177C), encoded by the FMF gene (MEFV) in 121 patients affected by acute myocardial infarction (AMI), in 68 cente