Open Collections

Samuels, Elizabeth

University of British Columbia

The mechanisms by which disease-conferring single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with cancer are not clear, but metabolomics may offer insights to these underlying mechanisms. The objective of this project is to identify metabolites associated with polygenic risk for breast cancer, in order to better understand the mechanistic underpinnings of genetic risk. Using a cross-sectional study design, we conducted regression analysis to identify associations between genetic risk for breast cancer and 223 metabolites. For 143 female participants from the British Columbia Generations Project (BCGP), metabolomics data was generated using the Nightingale Health Ltd nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) platform, and Maddavat et al’s 2019 polygenic risk score for breast cancer was used to calculate genetic risk. This study finds that very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and triglycerides are positively associated with polygenic risk for breast cancer, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) is negatively associated with polygenic risk for breast cancer. While future work is required to confirm these findings, this study presents a novel study design and biologically plausible findings that are in agreement with existing research into associations between lipoproteins and breast cancer risk. If confirmed, these lipoproteins could be targeted for lifestyle and pharmaceutical interventions among women of high genetic risk and would be valuable targets for future research into disease development.

Text

2022-10-14

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82864

Population and Public Health

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/