Association of ADH1B and ALDH2 gene polymorphisms with alcohol dependence: a pilot study from India

Abstract

Functional polymorphism in the genes encoding alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) 1B and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) 2 are considered most important among several genetic determinants of alcohol dependence, a complex disorder. There is no report on the widely studied Arg47His and Glu487Lys polymorphisms from Indian alcohol-dependent populations. In this paper, we report, for the first time, allelic and genotypic frequencies of Arg47His and Glu487Lys single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in North Indian alcohol-dependent subjects. A total of 174 alcohol-dependent males, recruited using DSM IV criteria (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), were genotyped using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. The results obtained from genetic analysis were correlated with clinical parameters using Student's t-test or Mann Whitney's U test. The highlight of the study findings was the uniquely high frequency of the ALDH2*2/*2 genotype (among alcohol-dependent subjects) being a risk-conferring factor for alcohol dependence.