Genetics

This blog post examines a 2024 Neurology study by Loonstra et al. investigating how genetic susceptibility influences the lifetime risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). Using a population-based Dutch birth-year cohort, the authors show that MS polygenic risk scores strongly stratify lifetime disease risk, with individuals in the highest genetic-risk decile showing substantially greater probability of developing MS than those in the lowest-risk groups. The study also highlights that PRS appears more useful for estimating disease susceptibility than predicting clinical progression, offering important implications for future diagnostic support, risk interpretation, and precision medicine in MS.