Is Alcoholism Hereditary? Alcoholism and Genetics Learn More

Meta-analysis of QTL mapping across eight different studies on murine alcohol consumption provided strong support for four QTL regions located on mouse chromosomes 2, 3, 4 and 9 (Belknap and Atkins 2001). However, evidence that links candidate genes within QTL regions causally to the phenotype remains difficult to obtain. Some researchers have hypothesized that there may be large panels of rare functional variants, each of large effect, that predict risk for alcoholism with different variants occurring in different people. It is becoming increasingly easy, and the costs are rapidly decreasing, to detect rare variants using next-generation sequencing. Sequencing is rapidly becoming the key tool for characterization of the genetic basis of human diseases [84].

Alcoholism is known to be moderately heritable yet the search for genetic vulnerability factors has proven to be more difficult than originally thought and to date only a small proportion of the genetic variance has been accounted for. Over the past decade there have been tremendous advances in large scale SNP genotyping technologies and next generation sequencing and these technologies, including GWAS arrays and whole genome sequencing, are now widely available. Results of GWAS suggest that numerous common variants with very small effect and potentially rare variants with large effects are likely to encode proteins within, or regulate, numerous biological pathways. The current hope is that with very large sample sizes, GWAS will provide novel information about genetic underpinnings of alcoholism, including gene pathways that are altered in disease. If you have a genetic risk of developing an alcohol addiction and have exhibited signs of this disorder, it’s important to seek treatment as soon as possible. Counseling and support can help tackle social and environmental factors that could contribute to an alcohol problem in the future.

What are the protective factors for AUD?

Over the next few years, we anticipate the
identification of additional common and rare variants contributing to the risk of
alcohol dependence. The first involves focusing the testing on specific genes that are selected on the basis of their physiological roles or their reported involvement in related traits. These so-called candidate gene studies have been fruitful in alcohol research. For example, they led to strong evidence Genetics of Alcoholism that genes that encode the two main enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism—alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH)—affect risk, which will be discussed in the next section. Some of these studies, particularly the earlier ones, only have assessed a single allele of a candidate gene, whereas in other studies a set of alleles was chosen to provide information on most of the common variations in the gene.

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Functional significance of GWAS variants

The DRD2 gene was the first candidate gene that showed promise of an association with alcoholism. The GI tract is exposed to very high levels of alcohol as it passes through
the mouth, esophagus, stomach and intestinal tract, and most ethanol passes through
the liver before entering https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/relation-between-alcohol-and-dementia/ the circulation. Alcohol levels in common drinks range
from approximately 5% (1.1 M) for beer, 11-15% for wine (∼3
M) and 40% for spirits (∼9 M). The oral cavity and esophagus are
directly exposed to those levels, and the liver is exposed to high levels from the
portal circulation.

• Like alcoholism, diabetes can “run in families.” Also like alcoholism, the trend of diabetes in a family can end if one person in the lineage decides to keep himself or herself out of harm’s way.
• Can children inherit genetic materials from their parents that increase their vulnerability to alcohol?
• They seem to lose fewer inhibitions and tolerate alcohol for longer before they pass out.
• This is an illustration of an Illumina GoldenGate array that was custom designed to include 1350 haplotype tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within 127 stress- and addictions-related genes.