The accuracy of the polygenic risk score for educational attainment in individuals with European ancestry in the Brazilian context

• Grant number: 20/11526-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2021
• End date: December 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Diego Luiz Rovaris
• Grantee: Clara Sabença Gusmão
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The use of polygenic risk scores (PRS) for the prediction of genetic susceptibility to certain phenotypes in humans is extremely important for physiological genomics in psychiatry. However, most of the discovery samples from which the PRS is deduced, originate from European cohorts. In virtue of that, there is a genetic and environmental Eurocentric bias in the data obtained to date. It is important, therefore, to study the effect that the exposome can have on the accuracy of PRS, so that it can be more representative of the world population, in all its diversity. In this study, we will seek to observe the influence that the Brazilian environment can have on the existing PRS for educational attainment in a sample of Brazilian individuals of European ancestry. Educational attainment is a moderately heritable phenotype (~50%), whose variance suffers great interference from the environment. Thus, if there are any significant discrepancies between the expected results and those observed for the associations with the PRS estimated, it will be possible to attribute such variation to the influence of Brazilian socioeconomic and cultural environment in the presentation of the phenotype in question. Thus, this project aims to understand which of the specific environmental variables influence the association between the PRS for educational attainment and its corresponding phenotype, that is a relevant endophenotype of psychiatric disorders.