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Nat Commun
Published

Identifying individuals with high risk of Alzheimer's disease using polygenic risk scores.

Authors

Ganna Leonenko, Emily Baker, Joshua Stevenson-Hoare, Annerieke Sierksma, Mark Fiers, Julie Williams, Bart de Strooper, Valentina Escott-Price

Abstract

Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) for AD offer unique possibilities for reliable identification of individuals at high and low risk of AD. However, there is little agreement in the field as to what approach should be used for genetic risk score calculations, how to model the effect of APOE, what the optimal p-value threshold (pT) for SNP selection is and how to compare scores between studies and methods. We show that the best prediction accuracy is achieved with a model with two predictors (APOE and PRS excluding APOE region) with pT<0.1 for SNP selection. Prediction accuracy in a sample across different PRS approaches is similar, but individuals' scores and their associated ranking differ. We show that standardising PRS against the population mean, as opposed to the sample mean, makes the individuals' scores comparable between studies. Our work highlights the best strategies for polygenic profiling when assessing individuals for AD risk.

PMID:34301930 | DOI:10.1038/s41467-021-24082-z

UK DRI Authors

Mark Fiers

Dr Mark Fiers

Assistant professor, Laboratory for the Research of Neurodegenerative Diseases, VIB-KU Leuven

Dr Mark Fiers
Julie Williams

Prof Julie Williams

Group Leader

Understanding the genetics of Alzheimer's disease

Prof Julie Williams
Bart De Strooper

Prof Bart De Strooper

Group Leader

Investigating the cellular reaction to amyloid beta and tau protein in Alzheimer's disease

Prof Bart De Strooper
Valentina Escott-Price

Prof Valentina Escott-Price

Group Leader

Using Big Data, machine learning and AI to accelerate discoveries into dementia

Prof Valentina Escott-Price