Scientists at Yale University School of Medicine and their collaborators carried out a genome-wide analysis of over 435,000 people, revealing 29 genetic variants associated with problematic drinking.
The study was reported in the Nature Neuroscience journal on May 25th, 2020.
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The new data triple the number of known genetic risk loci associated with problematic alcohol use.”
Joel Gelernter, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and of Neuroscience, Yale University
Gelernter is also the senior author of the multi-institutional study.
The research involved genome-wide analysis of people of European ancestry from four individual datasets or biobanks. The scientists searched for shared genetic variants among those who fulfilled the conditions for problematic alcohol use, including alcohol use with medical consequences and alcohol use disorder. Such disorders are significant contributors to a wide range of medical problems across the world.
The analysis identified 19 formerly unknown independent genetic risk factors and also validated 10 formerly identified risk factors.
For a number of psychiatric disorders, the meta-analysis of biobank data also contained data on genetic risk factors. This data enabled the scientists to examine the shared genetic links between problematic drinking and disorders like anxiety and depression.
The researchers also discovered that the genetic heritability of these variants was not only enriched in the brain but also in the evolutionarily preserved regulatory areas of the genome, demonstrating their significance in biological function.
By using the Mendelian randomization technique, the researchers were able to study how one genetically influenced trait has an impact on another genetically associated trait.
This gives us ways to understand causal relations between problematic alcohol use traits such as psychiatric states, risk-taking behavior, and cognitive performance.”
Hang Zhou, Study Lead Author and Associate Research Scientist in Psychiatry, Yale University
“With these results, we are also in a better position to evaluate the individual-level risk for problematic alcohol use,” Gelernter concluded.
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