Polygenic Risk Score in Africa Population: Progress and challenges

Abstract

Polygenic risk score (PRS) analysis is a powerful method been used to estimate an individual's genetic risk towards targeted traits. PRS analysis could be used to obtain evidence of a genetic effect beyond Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) results i.e. when there are no significant markers. PRS analysis has been widely applied to investigate the genetic basis of several traits including rare diseases. However, the accuracy of PRS analysis depends on the genomic data of the underlying population. For instance, several studies showed that obtaining higher prediction power of PRS analysis is challenging for non-Europeans. In this manuscript, we reviewed the conventional PRS methods and their application to sub-saharan Africa communities. We concluded that the limiting factor of applying PRS analysis to sub-saharan populations is the lack of sufficient GWAS data. Also, we recommended developing African-specific PRS tools