Monitoring Alcohol Abuse With Genomic Technology
While working in a pharmacy years ago, I handed a patient his prescription of Antabuse, an antialcoholic drug which blocks alcohol metabolism and causes an array of extremely unpleasant symptoms. I don’t know if he was under court order to take it or if he was trying to combat alcoholism. Regardless, Antabuse would have been a short-term solution without other forms of treatment. There are other ways of monitoring alcohol use and abuse, including biomarkers that incorporate genomic and proteomic technology. (RedNova News, July 14, 2005)
One method of detecting alcohol abuse involves studying gene expression patterns. Despite the complexity of measuring thousands of genes, using microarray analysis of RNA obtained from human whole blood, it’s possible to see if someone has been abusing alcohol by the way specific genes in blood cells are responding.
R. Adron Harris, director of the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research at the University of Texas at Austin said,
…early detection makes it that much easier to treat alcohol problems before they become dependence issues; biomarkers can help to make adherence to abstinence that much more likely; and new discoveries can help to ensure that new therapies for alcoholism are working.
Special consideration, however, needs to be paid to the boundaries between protecting the health and safety of (potential) alcoholics and their privacy. Using highly sensitive and specific biomarkers such as genetic markers in combination with a better understanding of the genetic basis of addiction will make it easier to develop better interventions that help curb cravings instead of making people deathly ill after they’ve indulged.
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Genetics and Health » More than 50 Genetic Loci for Alcoholism
Aug 30, 2006 at 8:02 am
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