Experts are at a loss
23andMe has introduced a diabetes test
Sergey Kolenov, Hi-tech+
The company claims that the new product will help millions of people take measures to prevent diabetes. The problem is that the test does not work well for the most vulnerable groups of the population and does not give any new information to the rest.
The company 23andMe has introduced its new product – a genetic test for type 2 diabetes. The analysis does not diagnose the disease, but indicates an increased risk of its development in the future. After getting acquainted with its results, a person can change his lifestyle and avoid the appearance of the disease.
Unlike the company's other tests, which identify one or two genes with a well-known effect, the diabetes assay uses a polygenic risk assessment.
This means that the probability of getting sick is estimated by summing up contributions from thousands of genes throughout the genome. Adding them together, the algorithm will indicate whether the client has a normal or increased risk of disease.
The new test could be a great help for the US healthcare system, which spends every fourth dollar on the treatment of diabetes and its complications. The situation is worst among African Americans and Indians – one in seven or eight of them suffers from diabetes. However, as noted Wired, the 23andMe test is aimed at Caucasians.
The fact is that the company's algorithm for calculating the polygenic risk assessment is based on its own database, which is dominated by customers of European origin. This means that for a white person, the diabetes test will be accurate enough, but a black person may as well flip a coin. Although 23andMe tried to compensate for the skew in the input data, experts doubt that this will work.
Many genetic tests presented on the market suffer from similar selectivity – for example, an Alzheimer's test created at the University of California, San Diego, or RiskScore, which detects the risk of breast cancer.
However, even for whites, the new 23andMe test may be useless. Most people who learn about the increased risk of diabetes after passing it are already overweight or obese. The recommendation to avoid sweets and flour and start exercising is unlikely to come as a surprise to them.
Those few clients who fall into the risk group, despite being slim, young and physically active, will also not be able to benefit only slightly from the test results.
If a person already leads a healthy lifestyle, he does not have additional levers for the prevention of diabetes. The only thing he can do is start taking regular blood sugar tests.
Some experts even doubt the effectiveness of polygenic assessments. In their opinion, the contribution of individual genes is so small that even its summation gives only a slight change in risk. The scientific discussion on this topic has been going on for two decades and biotech companies will only add to its acuteness.
Earlier, 23andMe presented DNA tests for colon cancer, and also launched a collaboration with Lark startup. Its purpose is to apply genetic analysis to develop an individual approach to weight loss.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru