Dónal Ring | Assistant News Editor
An international research team including Trinity scientist Dr Arun Bokde has discovered a gene affecting alcohol response in humans, which may have implications in treating alcohol abuse and addiction.
The chance of developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD) was long thought to have a strong genetic component, with previous studies suggesting up to 60 per cent. This new study, recently published in the leading journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, provides a hint into the molecular basis of AUD inheritance. A gene called Rsu1 (Ras suppressor protein 1), which was already known to be vital in nerve cell growth and differentiation, was found to have an important and complicated influence on acquiring a preference for alcohol.
The gene was linked to alcohol consumption regulation and subsequently to human behaviour by a series of experiments and observational studies, beginning with fruit flies – the researchers noted that their response to alcohol was very similar to that of humans. This prompted a search for an associated gene common to both organisms, and Rsu1 was found. Flies without the protein encoded by the gene in certain parts of the brain were less sensitive and less likely to become addicted. Brain scans of 1,400 human adolescents with no history of alcohol abuse and adults’ medical history records showed the gene had similar effects in humans – those more affected by the Rsu1 protein were likely to drink more.
Understanding the mechanism of the gene and protein could lead to methods of manipulating alcohol dependency. Bokde emphasised the importance of the findings, commenting: “This study underscores the need to understand the molecular mechanisms underpinning alcohol-related behaviours in humans. Knowing how these pathways work gives us some hope that we might design treatments to interact with the cellular pathways responsible for affecting our alcohol preferences.”
Bokde is an Assistant Professor in Trinity College Dublin’s School of Medicine and the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He is also a member of the IMAGEN consortium, which describes itself as a “European research project on risk taking behaviour in teenagers”, specialising in behavioural genetics and neuroimagery, and is composed of leading international experts.
