Understanding the correlation between Alzheimer's Disease polygenic risk, wealth, and the composition of wealth holdings

Potential corporate uses of polygenic indexes: Starting a conversation about the associated ethics and policy issues

Some commercial firms currently sell polygenic indexes (PGIs) to individual consumers, despite their relatively low predictive power. It might be tempting to assume that because the predictive power of many PGIs is so modest, other sorts of firms-such as those selling insurance and financial services-will not be interested in using PGIs for their own purposes. We argue to the contrary. We build this argument in two ways. First, we offer a very simple model, rooted in economic theory, of a profit-maximizing firm that can gain information about a single consumer's genome. We use the model to show that, depending on the specific economic environment, a firm would be willing to pay for statistically noisy PGIs, even if they allow for only a small reduction in uncertainty. Second, we describe two plausible scenarios in which these different kinds of firms could conceivably use PGIs to maximize profits. Finally, we briefly discuss some of the associated ethics and policy issues. They deserve more attention, which is unlikely to be given until it is first recognized that firms whose services affect a large swath of the public will indeed have incentives to use PGIs.

Cognitive activity at work and the risk of dementia

Dementia prevalence is projected to rise steeply in coming decades, producing tremendous burdens on families, and health and social services. Motivated by the need for further robust evidence on modifiable risk factors, we investigate the relationship between cognitive activity at work and later-life dementia. Using data from the US Health and Retirement Study matched to the O*NET occupational database, we find that a one standard deviation increase in the cognitive activity associated with one's longest held occupation is associated with a 0.9 percentage point reduction in (predicted) dementia, or a 24% reduction relative to the mean. This relationship is consistently found across model specifications and robustness tests. When controlling for individual fixed-effects we find that the association between dementia and work cognitive activity increases with age. Overall, our results provide some evidence in support of the inclusion of cognitive activity at work as a recognized modifiable risk factor for dementia.

Associations of Polygenic Risk Score for Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease With Biomarkers

Late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) is a common irreversible neurodegenerative disease with heterogeneous genetic characteristics. Identifying the biological biomarkers with the potential to predict the conversion from normal controls to LOAD is clinically important for early interventions of LOAD and clinical treatment. The polygenic risk score for LOAD (AD-PRS) has been reported the potential possibility for reliably identifying individuals with risk of developing LOAD recently. To investigate the external phenotype changes resulting from LOAD and the underlying etiology, we summarize the comprehensive associations of AD-PRS with multiple biomarkers, including neuroimaging, cerebrospinal fluid and plasma biomarkers, cardiovascular risk factors, cognitive behavior, and mental health. This systematic review helps improve the understanding of the biomarkers with potential predictive value for LOAD and further optimizing the prediction and accurate treatment of LOAD.