Blood Biomarkers and Genomics: Powerful Insights into Disease Risk

Identifying persons at high risk of chronic disease allows them to be targeted with prevention strategies before they get ill. Polygenic risk scores, in which genomic information alone is used to assess the risk of developing diseases, have recently received a lot of attention, but new research presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics suggests that combining blood biomarkers with genomic information yields more accurate, cost-effective results (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Blood biomarkers and genomics combo predicts common disease risk more accurately than only genomic information

Go to source). Dr. Jeffrey Barrett, Chief Scientific Officer at Nightingale Health in Helsinki, Finland, will present how his team assessed over 200 biomarkers in blood samples from 300,000 UK Biobank participants and 200,000 Estonian Biobank participants.

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Advancing Personalized Medicine: Predictive Models for Chronic Diseases

"This is the largest dataset of its kind ever collected," he explains. Based on genetic information and biomarkers measured, the researchers utilized machine learning to create predictive models for individuals' future risks of nine major diseases. Ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer's and other dementias, depression, liver disease, and colon cancer were also studied. According to the WHO, these are the leading causes of "disability-adjusted life years" in the European region, as well as the leading causes of suffering and healthcare expenses, and the most significant in terms of prevention.

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Enhancing Disease Risk Prediction with Blood Biomarkers Preventive Health

The researchers also discovered that the prediction using blood biomarkers was sometimes much greater for near-term risk (for example, in two or four years), which they believe may represent direct ties between some of what the biomarkers assess and the disease's pre-symptomatic phase. They feel that their work demonstrates how easy-to-measure blood tests can be utilized in population preventive health at a time when healthcare systems are running out of money, in large part due to aging populations having increasing levels of lifestyle diseases like the ones investigated. "It means that it is relatively easy to identify individuals who are most at risk of many diseases and offer them ways to reduce their risk, keeping them healthier while also lowering the financial burden."

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Harnessing Biomarkers for Personalized Genomic Preventive Medicine

"I was surprised by the breadth of our approach's applicability - the way the data capture many core metabolic functions in a single blood test could provide so much information across multiple areas of human health." We were able to demonstrate that our predictions were very consistent across many biobanks, whereas many other researchers could only access one. This shows that these biomarker scores are more than just a niche research discovery and that they could be used effectively in general practice," Dr Barrett adds.

"While more work to assess the robustness of these predictions is warranted," said conference chair Professor Alexandre Reymond, "it is tantalizing to see the first steps of genomic preventive medicine."

Reference:

1. Blood biomarkers and genomics combo predicts common disease risk more accurately than only genomic information - (https://medicaldialogues.in/mdtv/medicine/videos/blood-biomarkers-and-genomics-combo-predicts-common-disease-risk-more-accurately-than-only-genomic-information-112730)

Source-Medindia