Whole-genome risk prediction of common diseases in human preimplantation embryos

Nat Med. 2022 Mar;28(3):513-516. doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-01735-0. Epub 2022 Mar 21.

Abstract

Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) of in-vitro-fertilized embryos has been proposed as a method to reduce transmission of common disease; however, more comprehensive embryo genetic assessment, combining the effects of common variants and rare variants, remains unavailable. Here, we used a combination of molecular and statistical techniques to reliably infer inherited genome sequence in 110 embryos and model susceptibility across 12 common conditions. We observed a genotype accuracy of 99.0-99.4% at sites relevant to polygenic risk scoring in cases from day-5 embryo biopsies and 97.2-99.1% in cases from day-3 embryo biopsies. Combining rare variants with polygenic risk score (PRS) magnifies predicted differences across sibling embryos. For example, in a couple with a pathogenic BRCA1 variant, we predicted a 15-fold difference in odds ratio (OR) across siblings when combining versus a 4.5-fold or 3-fold difference with BRCA1 or PRS alone. Our findings may inform the discussion of utility and implementation of genome-based PGT in clinical practice.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Blastocyst
  • Embryo, Mammalian
  • Female
  • Fertilization in Vitro
  • Genetic Testing / methods
  • Humans
  • Pregnancy
  • Preimplantation Diagnosis* / methods