Direct-to-consumer genetic testing

Future challenges of direct-to-consumer genetic testing for sustainable safety in the Republic of Korea's skin care market: a systematic review

Background

Social distancing due to the pandemic is accelerating the fragmentation of Korean society in the megatrend of continuous individualization after industrialization. In this context, consumers are turning to direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing for tailored skin healthcare strategies. However, there are still concerns about the safety of personal information in DTC genetic testing. The purpose of this review article is to examine the sustainable safety of DTC genetic testing for customized dermatology products, focusing on skin healthcare market after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Methods

A systematic review approach was used in this study. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) flow chart, a total of 920 references were selected from PubMed, Medline, and Scopus. The composition of a total of 59 references from professional papers was finally reviewed. To this end, the most relevant recent literature was added, and the reference period was limited to 2018 to 2023 based on a 6-year period.

Results

With the practice of mask wearing since COVID-19, various methods are being used to strengthen the skin's immune system, and maintain and promote skin health. There is a need to have a method to increase the safety of DTC genetic testing for sustainable skin healthcare market.

Conclusions

It is concluded that there is a need to continue to develop more sustainable and safer security applications (apps) in the field of customized dermatology cosmetics to address the privacy issues and improve the accuracy of DTC genetic testing.

Genetic testing-whether to allow complete freedom? Direct to consumer tests versus genetic tests for medical purposes

Direct-to-consumer tests opened the opportunity of genetic testing without medical supervision, e.g., without medical referral and medical interpretation of the results. Thus, these approaches allow for free access to information concerning individual genetic profile increasing the area of personal freedom, but also posing the risk of false (positive and negative) or misinterpreted results along with health and psychological negative consequences. The paper discusses medical and non-medical applications of DTC, exploring also the legal framework implemented by European states and organizations. These legal acts strive to control the developing DTC market through such basic principles as patient protection, informed consent, medical information confidentiality, and the rights to know and to refuse knowledge about one's genetic predispositions.

Polygenic risk score for genetic evaluation of prostate cancer risk in Asian populations: A narrative review

Decreasing costs of genetic testing and interest in disease inheritance has changed the landscape of cancer prediction in prostate cancer (PCa), and guidelines now include genetic testing for high-risk groups. Familial and hereditary PCa comprises approximately 20% and 5% of all PCa, respectively. Multifaceted disorders like PCa are caused by a combinatory effect of rare genes of high penetrance and smaller genetic variants of relatively lower effect size. Polygenic risk score (PRS) is a novel tool utilizing PCa-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified from genome-wide association study (GWAS) to generate an additive estimate of an individual's lifetime genetic risk for cancer. However, most PRS are developed based on GWAS collected from mainly European populations and do not address ethnic differences in PCa genetics. This review highlights the attempts to generate a PRS tailored to Asian males including data from Korea, China, and Japan, and discuss the clinical implications for prediction of early onset and aggressive PCa.

Genomics in Personalized Nutrition: Can You "Eat for Your Genes"?

Genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are now quickly and inexpensively acquired, raising the prospect of creating personalized dietary recommendations based on an individual's genetic variability at multiple SNPs. However, relatively little is known about most specific gene-diet interactions, and many molecular and clinical phenotypes of interest (e.g., body mass index [BMI]) involve multiple genes. In this review, we discuss direct to consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) and the current potential for precision nutrition based on an individual's genetic data. We review important issues such as dietary exposure and genetic architecture addressing the concepts of penetrance, pleiotropy, epistasis, polygenicity, and epigenetics. More specifically, we discuss how they complicate using genotypic data to predict phenotypes as well as response to dietary interventions. Then, several examples (including caffeine sensitivity, alcohol dependence, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity/appetite, cardiovascular, Alzheimer's disease, folate metabolism, long-chain fatty acid biosynthesis, and vitamin D metabolism) are provided illustrating how genotypic information could be used to inform nutritional recommendations. We conclude by examining ethical considerations and practical applications for using genetic information to inform dietary choices and the future role genetics may play in adopting changes beyond population-wide healthy eating guidelines.