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Human Molecular Genetics Advance Access published online on December 12, 2007
A broad region on chromosome 4q has been linked to alcohol dependence (alcoholism). We hypothesized that such broad linkage regions represent the combined action of multiple genes.
Seeking to identify genes within that region that are associated with alcoholism, we have tested the association of NFKB1, located at 4q24, with alcoholism. NFKB1 encodes a 105 kDa transcription inhibitor that is cleaved to the 50 kDa DNA binding subunit of the ubiquitous transcription factor NF-
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Nineteen SNPs in and near NFKB1 were analyzed in a sample of 219 multiplex alcoholic families of European American descent.
Family based association analyses detected significant evidence of association with eight SNPs and marginal evidence for five more. The association was driven by the affected individuals with earlier onset of alcoholism (55% of the sample with onset
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Thus variations in NFKB1 appear to affect the risk for alcoholism, particularly contributing to an earlier onset of the disease.
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