Association of genetic variants in alcohol dehydrogenase 4 with alcohol dependence in Brazilian patients.

Guindalini, Camila; Scivoletto, Sandra; Ferreira, Ricardo G M; Breen, Gerome; Zilberman, Monica; Peluso, Marco Aurélio; Zatz, Mayana · Am J Psychiatry · 2005

case_control · Level III

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Abstract

The authors evaluated the association of three functional promoter polymorphisms of the ADH4 gene with alcohol dependence. DNA from 92 alcohol-dependent patients and 92 healthy comparison subjects was genotyped for all three polymorphisms. Variants at the -75 base-pair (bp) (C allele) and -159 bp (A allele) positions were associated with alcohol dependence. Individuals with haplotypes carrying both risk alleles showed an odds ratio of 2.9. These preliminary results suggest that ADH4 may play a role in the etiology of alcohol dependence. The association requires further study and replication but is functionally plausible and has a large effect size.

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