Non-genetic risk exposures, genetic predisposition, and complex diseases

Non-genetic risk exposures, genetic predisposition, and complex diseases

Lay summary

Complex diseases including cardiovascular disease (CVD) and pain tend to be affected by multiple factors. It has been demonstrated that genetic and non-genetic factors synergistically determine the development of these diseases. Genetic factors describe an individual's baseline risk for diseases. Polygenetic risk score (PRS) is aggregate information for significant genetic variants calculated from relevant genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and is a powerful tool to stratify an individual's genetic risk. At the same time, non-genetic risk factors (e. g., physiological state, social and environmental factors) have been demonstrated to be associated with CAD and pain. However, the prospective predictive value of multiple non-genetic factors in comparison with PRS has not been thoroughly examined.