Protective genetic variants – a balanced view of genetic testing results

^{August 2017}

This report considers the evolution and implications of research in this field and how geonomics could play a critical role in Life insurance underwriting.  

Using several examples,  this  report  shows  how  protective genetic variants  can  function to prevent disease and maintain overall health.  According to this study these genetic variants could reliably be used to help stratify individuals at all levels of disease risk into more accurate risk categories.  There are two blockers from realizing this.

• The guidelines for the classification of genetic variants, as  classified by the American College of Medical Genetics and Geonomics, do not account for  protective variants and  likely protective variants.  

• U.S  Legislation like the  Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)  prohibits the availability and use of genetic information  by those selling insurance products.  

What’s clear from all the research  mentioned in this paper is that there is a lot we still  don’t know. How do we  characterize the amount of risk reduction associated with different protective variants?  How far are we from a future where  genetic  testing results indicate “preferred” mortality risks as well as standard and substandard mortality risks?  

Fundamentally, the concept of the relationship of genetic variants to mortality risk is not a complete representation, as it doesn’t address the significance of genetic variants that is associated with the decreased risk of disease.