The Polygenic Risk Score Knowledge Base: A Centralized Online Repository for Calculating and Contextualizing Polygenic Risk Scores
Abstract Introduction: Genome-wide association (GWA) studies identify correlation between genetic variants and phenotypes. GWA findings can be used to calculate polygenic risk scores, which represent the aggregate genetic risk across all associated loci. Methods: We developed a centralized polygenic risk score calculator containing over 2,300 GWA studies from the NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog. Polygenic risk scores are calculated from user-uploaded data using various user-defined parameters across any disease(s) or studies. Results: The Polygenic Risk Score Knowledge Base (https://prs.byu.edu) and command-line interface facilitate user-specific polygenic risk score calculations. We report study-specific polygenic risk scores across the U.K. Biobank, 1000 Genomes, and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and identify potentially confounding genetic risk factors in ADNI.Discussion: We introduce the first streamlined analysis tool and web interface to calculate and contextualize polygenic risk scores across various studies. We anticipate that the PRSKB will facilitate a wider adaptation and innovative use of polygenic risk scores in disease research. Data Availability: This project is documented online at https://polyriskscore.readthedocs.io/en/latest/, and all programs are publicly available at https://github.com/kauwelab/PolyRiskScore. A web interface is also available at https://prs.byu.edu/.