Carrier Frequencies of Medically Actionable Pathogenic Variants in the Russian Population

Genomic sequencing can reveal potentially life-threatening clinically actionable secondary findings in healthy individuals. Little is known about the spectrum and frequency of secondary findings in healthy people in Russia. Here, we analyzed whole-genome sequences of 42,826 healthy volunteers from urban populations across Russia, focusing on known pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants of 81 genes associated with treatable or preventable monogenic diseases listed in the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics’ Secondary Findings recommendations (ACMG SF v3.2). Based on the ClinVar 20250421 version, secondary findings were detected in 1186 (2.76%) participants. Cancer phenotypes were the most common category of secondary findings present in 565 (1.32%) participants, followed by cardiovascular phenotypes (454 individuals, 1.05%). Genes harboring the most frequent variants were BRCA1 (151 variants), BRCA2 (100), RYR1 (93), and LDLR (71). In addition, we found 238 potential loss-of-function variants in dominant ACMG SF v3.2 list genes in 280 (0.65%) participants, which, if confirmed by orthogonal methods, could increase the frequency of secondary findings to 3.41%. A study of such depth and scale was performed for the first time in the Russian population.