Abstract
BackgroundMexican Americans, particularly those born in the United States, are at greater risk for alcohol associated morbidity and mortality. The present study sought to investigate whether specific genetic variants may be associated with alcohol use disorder phenotypes in a select population of Mexican American young adults.MethodsThe study evaluated a cohort of 427 (age 18 – 30 years) Mexican American men (n = 171) and women (n = 256). Information on alcohol dependence was obtained through interview using the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA). For all subjects, DNA was extracted from blood samples, followed by genotyping using an Affymetrix Axiom Exome1A chip.ResultsA protective variant (rs991316) located downstream from the ADH7 (alcohol dehydrogenase 7) gene showed suggestive significance in association with alcohol dependence symptom counts derived from DSM-III-R and DSM-IV criteria, as well as to clustered alcohol dependence symptoms. Additional linkage analysis suggested that nearby variants in linkage disequilibrium with rs991316 were not responsible for the observed association with the alcohol dependence phenotypes in this study.ConclusionsADH7 has been shown to have a protective role against alcohol dependence in previous studies involving other ethnicities, but has not been reported for Mexican Americans. These results suggest that variants near ADH7 may play a role in protection from alcohol dependence in this Mexican American cohort.
Highlights
Mexican Americans, those born in the United States, are at greater risk for alcohol associated morbidity and mortality
Association analysis The results of the present study suggest that a variant located downstream of the alcohol dehydrogenase 7 gene (ADH7) may play a role in protection from alcohol dependence in this Mexican American cohort
Because variants located in the ADH gene region have been found to be associated with alcohol dependence in a Native American population [18,40,44], we examined the self-reported ancestry for this Mexican American cohort
Summary
Mexican Americans, those born in the United States, are at greater risk for alcohol associated morbidity and mortality. The Los Angeles site of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study found that Mexican American men have higher alcohol dependence rates across all age categories compared to White men [4]. In a study by Vega et al [5], higher overall alcohol dependence rates were found only in US-born Mexican Americans. More recent studies, comparing Hispanic national groups in the United States, show that Mexican Americans, together with Puerto Ricans, have the highest rates of binge drinking, driving under the influence of alcohol, alcohol abuse, and dependence [6,7,8]
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