Leveraging human genetics to inform intervention strategies for multiple sclerosis

Striking changes in the demographic pattern of multiple sclerosis (MS), with increasing prevalence and incidence over time, especially in women, strongly indicate an influence of modifiable exposures on the disease.¹ In understanding these important clues, it is difficult to pinpoint which of the many environmental, lifestyle, and sociodemographic changes that have occurred over the past decades such as higher smoking and obesity rates and earlier age at puberty are responsible. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been highly successful in identifying genetic factors underlying many human traits, including >200 known genetic risk factors for MS.² Environmental risk factors, including exposure to external or physiologic factors, have been much harder to pinpoint.

from Neurology recent issues http://bit.ly/2XdI9Ys