Genome-wide polygenic risk impact on intracranial aneurysms and acute ischemic stroke

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 15;17(4):e0265581. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265581. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) have an important relevance to approaches for clinical usage in intracranial aneurysm (IA) patients. Hence, we aimed to develop IA-predicting PRS models including the genetic basis shared with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) in Korean populations. We applied a weighted PRS (wPRS) model based on a previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 250 IA patients in a hospital-based multicenter cohort, 222 AIS patients in a validation study, and 296 shared controls. Risk predictability was analyzed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). The best-fitting risk models based on wPRSs were stratified into tertiles representing the lowest, middle, and highest risk groups. The weighted PRS, which included 29 GWASs (p < 5×10-8) and two reported genetic variants (p < 0.01), showed a high predictability in IA patients (AUROC = 0.949, 95% CI: 0.933-0.966). This wPRS was significantly validated in AIS patients (AUROC = 0.842, 95% CI: 0.808-0.876; p < 0.001). Two-stage risk models stratified into tertiles showed an increased risk for IA (OR = 691.25, 95% CI: 241.77-1976.35; p = 3.1×10-34; sensitivity/specificity = 0.728/0.963), which was replicated in AIS development (OR = 39.76, 95% CI: 16.91-93.49; p = 3.1×10-17; sensitivity/specificity = 0.284/0.963). A higher wPRS for IA may be associated with an increased risk of AIS in the Korean population. These findings suggest that IA and AIS may have a shared genetic architecture and should be studied further to generate a precision medicine model for use in personalized diagnosis and treatment.

Publication types

  • Multicenter Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Genetic Predisposition to Disease
  • Genome-Wide Association Study
  • Humans
  • Intracranial Aneurysm* / complications
  • Intracranial Aneurysm* / genetics
  • Ischemic Stroke*
  • Multifactorial Inheritance / genetics
  • Risk Factors
  • Stroke* / complications
  • Stroke* / genetics

Grants and funding

This study received funding from the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education (2020R1l1A3070726) (http://english.moe.go.kr/main.do?s=english). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.