Power of combining rare and polygenic risk analysis.

Genomics

India is a young country with a growing burden of lifestyle diseases. Infact, it is called the Diabetes Capital of the World. It has been estimated that the diabetic population is close to hitting the 69.9 million mark by 2025 and reaching 80 million by 2030! According to the Global Disease Burden report, the growing number of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases are attributed to poor lifestyle choices and habits, each of which is subjective to an individual.

Let’s take, for instance, the development of a new drug or the effects of specific genes on a behavioural trait. Regardless of the several surveys and meta-analyses, there is a grey area in which researchers and scientists cannot predict and identify those individuals who look healthy but are still at an increased risk for developing lifestyle diseases. This is where clinical genetics and genomics come into play.

Genomics is the science behind why people react differently to different diets, lifestyle changes and drugs, thereby making it a powerful tool for identifying at-risk individuals in a population.

We have many health plans, dietary recommendations and exercise regimes to help overcome metabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. But, what is suitable for one person may not be right for others. At Wellytics, our extensive research and experience in genomics have brought us to the understanding that neither DNA nor lifestyle alone is sufficient to offer effective recommendations. Our genes hold more information than we know, and even the slightest genetic changes affect human biology.

Polygenic Risk Score - It’s All About Personalised Care!

Our DNA comprises nearly 3.2 billion letters that form a sequence, and we share around 99% of these sequences. Several studies have identified millions of locations in the DNA where a single letter is associated with a different risk level for a health condition compared to another.

Wellytics drives its genomics solutions with a systematic measurement of genetic information called Polygenic Risk Score (PRS). The PRS summarises an individual’s predisposition for health conditions, and we combine it with other non-genetic information to give an overall risk. The risk is relative because the source of the PRS is sourced from large-scale genomic studies worldwide.

Diseases with a genetic cause can be influenced by genetic variants or mutations in single or multiple genes. In most cases, genes are influenced by multiple environmental factors. Several researchers have collected enormous amounts of genomic data, analysed them and developed Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) for various health conditions.

Using a Polygenic Risk Score is challenging for complex diseases that are influenced by multiple genes, nutritional, environmental and lifestyle or behavioural factors. This makes the Polygenic Risk Score a useful tool with immense potential to estimate one’s risk for diseases.

Wellytics’ genetic test decodes the letters at each DNA location and combines it with the information available across all positions (genomic sequencing). Since different locations are important for various health conditions, a new PRS-based risk is allotted for every health condition. We combine this PRS with traditional risk factors like age, ethnicity, biological gender, BMI and blood parameters to give each individual a personalised risk for a specific condition.

The PRS tells you how an individual’s risk for a disease is compared to another individual with different genetic makeup. For example, the Polygenic Risk Score for diabetes may be the same for a 20-year-old and a 50-year-old, but they will have different lifestyle habits and lifetime disease risks. This means that though two people have the same PRS for a disease, how these scores are combined with other factors to cause the disease, prevent or treat it varies for everyone.