Ethnicity and alcohol dependence: Phenotypes, genes, and the social environment

描述（由申请人提供）：酒精健康差异研究表明，尽管白人酒精依赖的患病率较高，但黑人和西班牙裔人饮酒对社会和健康的不利影响更大，酒精依赖的严重程度也更高。对种族酒精差异如何发展和持续的科学理解落后于他们的认识。指导研究科学家发展奖（K01）申请候选人Karen G. Chartier博士的长期职业目标是更好地了解影响少数民族酒精后果的遗传、社会和宏观环境因素之间的相互关系。这一特殊应用的目的是测试酒精代谢基因与黑人和西班牙裔酒精依赖相关表型的关系，并研究酒精依赖严重程度的基因-环境相互作用。这些目标将通过检查三个具体目标来实现：1)评估酒精代谢等位基因对酒精依赖症状和饮酒不良反应的影响；2)检验社会因素对酒精依赖严重程度遗传易感性的调节作用；3)探讨社区社会因素对酒精依赖严重程度和遗传易感性的影响。拟议的研究将利用先前从酒精中毒遗传学合作研究（COGA）中收集的数据和美国人口普查局公开提供的数据，这些数据描述了人口普查区水平的社区特征。受试者将是18岁及以上的黑人、西班牙裔和白人成年COGA受试者，包括受酒精中毒影响和未受酒精中毒影响的受试者。这项研究具有创新性，因为它研究了未被充分研究的黑人和西班牙裔人群的遗传因素；研究酒精代谢基因与狭义酒精症状的关系；并测试了社会环境与酒精依赖严重程度的遗传易感性之间的关系。该候选人将在Raul Caetano医学博士和一组共同导师的指导下进行拟议的研究，以获得酒精依赖表型、少数民族群体遗传学研究以及检查遗传和社会因素的方法方面的专业知识。培训活动将包括遗传学和高级统计应用、基于空间数据的地理编码、研究伦理和资助方面的课程作业和指导。最终，这一培训将使候选人准备将遗传和社会变量整合到酒精研究中，并将促进她对健康差异研究的贡献。预计这些研究将导致酒精遗传学研究的进步，并进一步努力解释黑人、西班牙裔和白人在酒精严重程度上的差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alcohol health disparities research shows that, despite higher prevalence rates of alcohol dependence for whites, blacks and Hispanics experience more adverse social and health effects from drinking and greater alcohol dependence severity. The scientific understanding for how ethnic alcohol disparities develop and are sustained has lagged behind their recognition. The long-term career goal for the candidate of this Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) application, Karen G. Chartier, PhD, is to better understand the interrelationships between genetic, social, and macro-environment factors that affect alcohol consequences for ethnic minority groups. The objectives for this particular application are to test the relationship of alcohol metabolizing genes to phenotypes relevant to alcohol dependence for blacks and Hispanics, and to investigate gene-environment interactions for alcohol dependence severity. These objectives will be accomplished by examining three specific aims: 1) to evaluate the effect of alcohol metabolizing alleles on alcohol dependence symptoms and adverse reactions to drinking; 2) to test social factors as moderators of genetic susceptibility for alcohol dependence severity; and 3) to examine the effects of neighborhood social factors on alcohol dependence severity and genetic susceptibility. The proposed studies will utilize previously collected data from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) and publicly available data from the U.S. Census Bureau that describe neighborhood characteristics at the census tract level. Subjects will be black, Hispanic, and white adult COGA subjects, ages 18 years and older, including those affected and unaffected by alcoholism. This research is innovative because it: examines genetic factors in understudied black and Hispanic populations; investigates relationships for alcohol metabolizing genes to more narrowly defined alcohol symptoms; and tests the relationships between the social environment and genetic susceptibility for alcohol dependence severity. The candidate will conduct the proposed research under the mentorship of Raul Caetano, MD, PhD and a team of co-mentors to gain expertise in phenotypes for alcohol dependence, genetics research with ethnic minority groups, and methodologies for examining genetic and social factors. Training activities will include coursework and mentoring in genetics and advanced statistical applications, geocoding for spatial-based data, research ethics, and grantsmanship. Ultimately, this training will prepare the candidate to integrate genetic and social variables in alcohol studies and will facilitate her contribution to health disparities research. It is anticipaed that the proposed studies will lead to advances in alcohol genetics research and further efforts to explain the differences in alcohol severity for blacks, Hispanics, and whites.