Publications by authors named "D M Duggan"

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 200 common genetic variants independently associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, but the causal variants and target genes are mostly unknown. We sought to fine-map all known CRC risk loci using GWAS data from 100,204 cases and 154,587 controls of East Asian and European ancestry. Our stepwise conditional analyses revealed 238 independent association signals of CRC risk, each with a set of credible causal variants (CCVs), of which 28 signals had a single CCV.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates whether incorporating polygenic scores (PGS) for ischemic stroke (IS) and related diseases can enhance current risk assessments that mainly rely on clinical factors.
  • - Data from over 479,000 participants in the UK Biobank revealed that both traditional clinical variables and PGS were independently linked to IS risk, with the combined model showing a slight improvement in predictive accuracy.
  • - Although the addition of PGS to the clinical model improved risk classification, the overall increase in predictive power was modest, suggesting limited clinical utility for this approach.
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Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) strongly suggest that most traits and diseases have a polygenic component. This observation has motivated the development of disease-specific "polygenic scores (PGS)" that are weighted sums of the effects of disease-associated variants identified from GWAS that correlate with an individual's likelihood of expressing a specific phenotype. Although most GWAS have been pursued on disease traits, leading to the creation of refined "Polygenic Risk Scores" (PRS) that quantify risk to diseases, many GWAS have also been pursued on extreme human longevity, general fitness, health span, and other health-positive traits.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates a unique multi-generation family affected by colorectal cancer (CRC) with pathogenic variants in the BRCA1 and RNF43 genes, which are linked to breast/ovarian cancer and Serrated Polyposis Syndrome, respectively.
  • Out of 105 families eligible for Familial Colorectal Cancer Type X, this particular family underwent whole exome sequencing, revealing 10 carriers of a BRCA1 variant and 8 of an RNF43 variant, with some individuals developing CRC.
  • The analysis showed loss of heterozygosity in CRC tumors related to both genes, indicating that both BRCA1 and RNF43 play critical roles in the development of CRC through digenic inheritance and homologous recombination
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