Omics and rare diseases: challenges, applications, and future perspectives

Abstract

Introduction: Rare diseases (RDs) are a heterogeneous group of diseases recognized as a relevant global health priority but posing aspects of complexity, such as geographical scattering of affected individuals, improper/late diagnosis, limited awareness, difficult surveillance and monitoring, limited understanding of natural history, and lack of treatment. Usually, RDs have a pediatric onset and are life-long, multisystemic, and associated with a poor prognosis.

Areas covered: In this work, we review how high-throughput omics technologies such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenomics, and other well-established omics, which are increasingly more affordable and efficient, can be applied to the study of RDs promoting diagnosis, understanding of pathological mechanisms, biomarker discovery, and identification of treatments.

Expert opinion: RDs, despite their challenges, offer a niche where collaborative efforts and personalized treatment strategies might be feasible using omics technologies. Specialized consortia fostering multidisciplinary collaboration, data sharing, and the development of biobanks and registries can be built; multi-omics approaches, including so far less exploited omics technologies, along with the implementation of AI tools can be undertaken to deepen our understanding of RDs, driving biomarker discovery and clinical interventions. Nevertheless, technical, ethical, legal, and societal issues must be clearly defined and addressed.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; biomarkers; epigenomics; metabolomics; next generation sequencing; precision medicine; proteomics; transcriptomics.