Estimation of Genetic Risk Function with Covariates in the Presence of Missing Genotypes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new statistical method for estimating genetic disease risk that accounts for covariates and missing genotype data, improving prediction accuracy in genetic epidemiology studies.

Contribution

It develops a novel estimation approach that incorporates covariates and interactions with missing genotypes within a unified model, enhancing risk prediction in genetic studies.

Findings

Simulation studies demonstrate improved risk estimation accuracy.

Application to Parkinson's disease shows practical utility in real data.

Method enables better sample size planning for clinical trials.

Abstract

In genetic epidemiological studies, family history data are collected on relatives of study participants and used to estimate the age-specific risk of disease for individuals who carry a causal mutation. However, a family member's genotype data may not be collected due to the high cost of in-person interview to obtain blood sample or death of a relative. Previously, efficient nonparametric genotype-specific risk estimation in censored mixture data has been proposed without considering covariates. With multiple predictive risk factors available, risk estimation requires a multivariate model to account for additional covariates that may affect disease risk simultaneously. Therefore, it is important to consider the role of covariates in the genotype-specific distribution estimation using family history data. We propose an estimation method that permits more precise risk prediction by controlling for individual characteristics and incorporating interaction effects with missing genotypes in relatives, and thus gene-gene interactions and gene-environment interactions can be handled within the framework of a single model. We examine performance of the proposed methods by simulations and apply them to estimate the age-specific cumulative risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in carriers of LRRK2 G2019S mutation using first-degree relatives who are at genetic risk for PD. The utility of estimated carrier risk is demonstrated through designing a future clinical trial under various assumptions. Such sample size estimation is seen in the Huntington's disease literature using the length of abnormal expansion of a CAG repeat in the HTT gene, but is less common in the PD literature.