Identification of Alcoholism Susceptibility Genes
Abstract
Genetic epidemiological analysis provides convincing data that a significant portion of the liability for developing alcoholism is inherited. The identity and mechanism by which genes contribute to inherited susceptibility to alcoholism are unknown. If genes that affect susceptibility to alcoholism can be identified, they are logical targets for the development of pharmacological agents to modify? susceptibility and treat alcoholism. Primarily, the meiotic gene mapping approach has been used in an effort to identify genes that affect susceptibility to alcoholism. This approach may be insensitive to genes that have common alleles with modest effects on susceptibility. An alternative approach, allelic association analysis, may be far more powerful for detecting these genes, but requires the analysis of individual candidate genes. This proposal examines a large number of genes implicated in the biology of alcoholism to see whether common alleles of these genes affect susceptibility. By Nov 30, 389 polymorphisms, from 23 candidate genes, in over 1200 subjects from the UCSF family study will have been genotyped. The advantage of performing this analysis on a large number of genes is that the data can be used to avoid population stratification and may detect allelic effects on susceptibility that would not otherwise be observed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA410272
Entities
People
- Kirk C. Wilhelmsen