ALCOHOL PHARMACOGENETICS IN MEXICAN AMERICANS

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中的一个 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 研究中心，而研究中心不一定是研究者所在的机构。 拟议项目的主要重点是确定墨西哥裔美国人酗酒的遗传风险因素。本研究选择的基因属于两大类：（1）控制酒精如何分解和从体内消除的基因，以及（2）与酒精作用和/或酒精成瘾潜力相关的基因（即多巴胺，血清素和GABA）。由于涉及酒精使用和成瘾的风险因素很可能是由于许多不同的原因，这似乎是一个合理的方法。 通过同时检查这两类基因，我们的目标不仅是描述墨西哥裔美国人的基因分布，这些基因在其他人群中已得到很好的表征，并发现与饮酒行为，酒精成瘾和酒精相关的医疗问题有关，而且还探索这两类基因在酗酒中的相互作用。此外，由于墨西哥裔美国女性酗酒问题严重，而且妇女更容易受到与酒精有关的伤害，因此将妇女包括在内至关重要。虽然我们并不认为在非酒精人群中，男性和女性的某个基因的频率是不同的，但我们确实推测，如果男女酗酒的严重程度相同，那么女性的遗传与酗酒之间的联系可能比男性更强，因为女性性别是饮酒的保护因素。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The primary focus of the proposed project is to identify the genetic risk factors for alcoholism in Mexican Americans. The genes selected for this study belong to two major categories: (1) those controlling how alcohol is broken down and eliminated from the body and (2) those associated with the action of alcohol and/or the potential for addiction to alcohol (i.e. dopamine, serotonin and GABA). As the risk factors involved in alcohol use and addiction are most likely due to a number of different reasons, this appears to be a reasonable approach. With the simultaneous examination of genes from both categories, we aim at not only describing the distribution in Mexican Americans of genes that have been well characterized in other populations and found to be associated with drinking behavior, alcohol addiction and alcohol related medical problems, but also to explore the interaction of those two categories of genes in alcoholism. Furthermore, it is crucial to include women because of the serious drinking problem in female Mexican Americans and because women are more susceptible to alcohol related injury. Although we do not anticipate that the frequency of a certain gene is different between men and women in the non-alcoholic population, we do speculate that a stronger association between genetics and alcoholism might be found in women than men if both genders have the same severity of alcoholism, since female gender is a protecting factor for drinking.