genetic epidemiology

genetic epidemiology, the study of how genes and environmental factors influence human traits and human health and disease. Genetic epidemiology developed initially from population genetics, specifically human quantitative genetics, with conceptual and methodological contributions from epidemiology.

One of the early proponents of genetic epidemiology, American geneticist Newton Morton, defined the field as one that addresses the etiology, distribution, and control of disease in groups of related individuals and the inherited causes of diseases in populations. That definition later was broadened to include the role of the environment, owing to the realization that genetic factors frequently interact with environmental factors to influence disease in human populations. In 2003, scientists Muin J. Khoury, Julian Little, and Wylie Burke coined the term human genome epidemiology to encompass a system of study that uses the methods of epidemiology to understand the influence of genomic variation in both health and disease, thereby going beyond the influence of individual genes, which remained the primary focus of genetic epidemiology.

Modern genetic epidemiology includes all diseases, whether they are common and complex or supposedly simpler, such as the so-called monogenic (single-gene) disorders. Many advances in the epidemiology of genetic diseases have involved seemingly simple inherited disorders (e.g., cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease). However, those advances have also indicated that even monogenic disorders can be highly complex, owing to epigenetic factors and interactions of disease genes with environmental factors. In addition to the broad focus on genetic disease, genetic epidemiology encompasses a variety of aspects of epidemiology, including studies of prevalence, clinical epidemiology, genotype-phenotype relationships, and disease progression and outcomes.

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Historical developments

Historically, the field of genetic epidemiology has roots in the areas of medicine concerning the causes and heredity of disease. Prior to the 1950s, before the field was formally established, scientists who perhaps would be labeled as early genetic epidemiologists were trying to unravel the relationship between nature (genetics) and nurture (environment) in human disease. Those activities were in contrast to the activities of early practitioners of medical genetics and genetic counseling. The former tended to be oriented toward clinical and descriptive aspects of diseases with potential genetic involvement, while the latter carried out genetic counseling based on what was known then about the inheritance patterns of some diseases. Early practitioners of genetic epidemiology, on the other hand, often looked for associations between diseases, such as between stomach ulcers and genetic traits of blood groups. In addition, in the early 1960s, when genetic epidemiology was beginning to take form, the legacy of eugenics was still evident in the names of medical journals and organizations.

The early history of attempts to solve the problem of heredity versus environment—that is, nature versus nurture—in causing human disease was subject to shifting emphasis in the importance of one over the other. Both scientific and societal concerns were responsible for driving those swings in perspective over time, whereby the scientific community and society viewed either nature or nurture as the more important determinant in causing diseases. In the modern era, the controversy about nature versus nurture has been gradually replaced by a view that includes roles for both nature and nurture in human disease. Indeed, both genetic and environmental factors have been found to influence disease susceptibility.

Since the latter part of the 20th century, the importance of genetic determinants of human diseases has been increasingly recognized. Meanwhile, human geneticists have described the role of various environmental exposures in human disease. There also has been increasing acceptance of the idea, asserted in 2003 by Khoury, Little, and Burke, that most human disease, if not all, is the result of the interaction between underlying genetic susceptibility and exposures to various components of the environment, including chemical, dietary, infectious, physical, and behavioral factors. The latter would encompass the influences of cultural factors in human behaviour and their interaction with other environmental factors.

Approaches in genetic epidemiology

Various approaches are used in genetic epidemiology, including population-based approaches, case-control studies, and prevalence studies. Population-based approaches, for example, can be used to gather data on clinical features and outcomes in patients with specific diseases and disorders. Knowing the distributional characteristics of socioeconomic and other demographic variables of a study population can provide additional insight into disease.

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Other approaches used include linkage studies, which are focused on the tendency of certain genes and other genetic factors to be inherited as a unit (rather then independently). For multifactorial diseases (diseases involving multiple genes), studies involving twins may be used to establish evidence for a role for genetic factors in a disease, while association studies may be used for the detection of susceptibility genes. Family studies of disease risk in first-degree relatives are also used and often include comparisons of familial risk to risk in the population (i.e., prevalence) and, if controls are available (e.g., in case-control studies), to the risk of relatives of control individuals.

An important contribution of epidemiology to the development of genetic epidemiology has been the introduction of traditional epidemiological methods to the mix of study designs. Human quantitative genetics used studies of twins, siblings, half-siblings, and in some cases adoptees to investigate the genetic and environmental sources of variation in human traits and diseases. Application of epidemiological methods such as case-control studies and cohort studies has further extended those methods for examining genetic and environmental risk factors simultaneously. In any of the methods used, the emphasis on a population-based approach becomes important, whether it is the collection of prevalence data in surveillance programs or enhancing the ability to test how representative a specific sample is through an understanding of the characteristics of the larger population.

Contributions to public health

Genetic epidemiology has made important contributions to medicine and public health. One example is the use of newborn screening to detect inherited disorders in offspring. In the United States, a clinical intervention study conducted during the 1980s on sickle cell disease paved the way for expansion of newborn screening programs to include the disease in the programs of more states. The study was a randomized trial to determine the prophylactic (preventative) effects of penicillin administration in children diagnosed with sickle cell disease. A reduction in both the incidence of pneumococcal infections and the mortality in those infants who received penicillin compared with the untreated group led to the conclusion that children should be screened in the newborn period for sickle cell disease and receive penicillin early in the first year of life to prevent the infections. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, research revealed that familial traits are associated with certain psychiatric disorders and substance dependence in adults and children. That realization has helped genetic epidemiologists to identify specific environmental factors that contribute to the disorders, indicating that preventing exposure to such factors could reduce the risk of developing the disorders.

As human geneticists and epidemiologists search for more optimal strategies to identify disease genes and overcome methodological limitations in dissecting the genetic components of complex diseases, their work continues to aid the translation of the results of genomic research into effective public health measures.

Distinctions from related fields

There are a number of aspects that distinguish genetic epidemiology from other areas of genetics. The first is the population-based nature of genetic epidemiology, which, together with shared methodological approaches, is one of its key links with epidemiology. Second, ways of conceptualizing the field emphasize the search for combined and interactive effects of genetic and environmental factors. Finally, genetic epidemiology includes the consideration of the biological basis of the diseases into developing models of causation for diseases.

In addition, genetic epidemiology is distinct from the field of molecular epidemiology, which grew out of environmental epidemiology. The rationale for the emergence of molecular epidemiology was the need to identify biomarkers of environmental exposures as an application of molecular biology in epidemiology.