Clinical applications of polygenic risk score for coronary artery disease through the life course

Akl C Fahed1, Pradeep Natarajan1

  • 1Cardiovascular Research Center, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Center for Genomic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Cardiovascular Disease Initiative, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Atherosclerosis
|November 6, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Polygenic risk scores for coronary artery disease (CAD) offer improved prevention and treatment strategies. These scores can identify at-risk individuals early and guide precise interventions throughout life.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Genetics
  • Preventive Cardiology

Background:

  • Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major global health burden.
  • Current prevention strategies for CAD have limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the application of polygenic risk scores (PRS) for CAD.
  • To explore how PRS can enhance preventive and treatment frameworks.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on PRS in CAD.
  • Analysis of PRS utility across different life stages and clinical scenarios.

Main Results:

  • PRS can identify individuals at high risk for CAD early in life.
  • PRS improves risk prediction accuracy in middle age.
  • PRS can guide treatment decisions and clinical trial design post-CAD onset.

Conclusions:

  • PRS holds significant potential to personalize CAD prevention and treatment.
  • Widespread clinical implementation of PRS for CAD requires further development and validation.

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