Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a genetically heterogeneous disease, with various genetic variants potentially influencing disease mechanisms differently. Pathway-based polygenic risk scores (p-PRS) can b Show more
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a genetically heterogeneous disease, with various genetic variants potentially influencing disease mechanisms differently. Pathway-based polygenic risk scores (p-PRS) can be used to examine how groups of risk genes with similar biological functions impact disease-related endophenotypes such as cognitive decline. potentially aiding in differentiating pre-clinical dementia from normal age-related cognitive decline. Data from 1,737 participants (53.5% female) from the Betula study were analyzed. AD-weighted p-PRS were calculated for five AD-related pathways: immune response, tau, cholesterol, protein-lipid, and amyloid. The p-PRS were tested for associations with all-cause dementia risk ( All-cause dementia risk was significantly predicted by the gw- and immune PRS. Hazard ratios for gw-, immune-, tau-, cholesterol-, and amyloid p-PRS were larger for prediction of AD risk and smaller for VD risk relative to all-cause dementia, while the opposite was seen for the protein-lipid p-PRS. Cognitive decline was stronger associated with the immune p-PRS than the gw-PRS, and this effect was driven by participants that remained non-demented (linear age-effects). Amyloid p-PRS showed accelerated age-effect at the oldest age in both non-demented and subsequently demented. Our results show that AD-weighted p-PRS have differential roles on dementia risk and cognitive decline. Specifically, results suggest a broad role of immune p-PRS in both age-related cognitive decline and dementia risk, while amyloid p-PRS influences AD risk and pre-clinical cognitive decline, and protein-lipid p-PRS does not influence AD risk nor cognitive decline but show a potential role in VD. Results are of value for development of precision medicine based on genetic risk profiling. All-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk is strongest predicted by apolipoprotein E ( Show less
Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and other disorders with similar features are common genetic disorders that remain underdiagnosed and undertreated, due in part to the cost of screening. The aim of Show more
Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and other disorders with similar features are common genetic disorders that remain underdiagnosed and undertreated, due in part to the cost of screening. The aim of this study was to design and implement a whole gene targeted NGS panel for the molecular diagnosis of FH and statin intolerance with an emphasis on high quality variant calling, including copy number analysis. A whole gene panel for hybridisation-based short read NGS was designed for the dominant FH-genes low density lipoprotein receptor ( The panel sequencing resulted in high coverage and confident variant calling of included genes. Known causal variants were found in common dominant FH-genes in 43 % of the cohort. Copy number variants were found in This new tool can be used for a comprehensive high-quality molecular genetic analysis according to guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of FH. Show less