Genetic Link
to alcoholism. Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have found a gene variant that possibly protects persons from becoming alcoholics reported newswise.com 10-19-2010.
The gene variant, called CYP2E1 is connected with a person’s response to alcohol.
According to Stone Hearth News, “For the ten to twenty percent of people that possess this variant, those first few drinks leave them feeling more inebriated than the rest of the human population, who harbor a different version of the gene.” Those that don’t have it, are more susceptible to alcoholism.
The discovery of this gene, and the role it plays points a finger at a new mechanism about how a person views alcohol, but more importantly, how alcohol affects the brain.
Senior study author Kirk Wilhelmsen, MD, PhD, professor of genetics at UNC said that this gene protects against alcoholism, and does so with a “very strong effect,” reported newswise.com.
The CYP2E1 gene has had scientists’ attention for years now due its activity for encoding an enzyme that can metabolize alcohol. However, much of the alcohol in the body gets metabolized, or broken down, by another enzyme called dehydrogenase, and does its business in our livers.
CYP2E1 works in our brains instead, and is different from other enzymes that it produces because it generates very small molecules called “free radicals” that actually can destroy cells, especially sensitive ones like those found in the brain.
You have probably heard of “free radicals” and their ability to destroy cells in our bodies. “Alcohol metabolism’s various processes create harmful compounds that contribute to cell and tissue damage.
In particular, the enzyme cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) plays a role in creating a harmful condition known as oxidative stress. This condition is related to oxygen’s ability to accept electrons and the subsequent highly reactive and harmful byproducts created by these chemical reactions. CYP2E1’s use of oxygen in alcohol metabolism generates reactive oxygen species, ultimately leading to oxidative stress and tissue damage,” according to bnet.
Alcoholism is a very complex condition, and this may be just one of the factors involved in why people drink. To believe otherwise slams the door shut on further investigation, and understanding of this oftentimes brutal addiction.
The study appears in the Oct. 19th online edition of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research (ACER), and will appear in the print version of the journal in January 2011.