Association of the Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 2 Promoter Polymorphism With Alcohol Consumption and Reactions in an American Jewish PopulationAlcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 31 (10), 1654–1659.
Reduction in activity of the mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) enzyme due to genetic deficiency causes reactions related to alcohol consumption and lowers the risk of alcoholism.
ALDH2*2 is the only functionally significant polymorphism of the ALDH2 gene. An additional polymorphic locus in the promoter (G to A substitution approximately 360 bp from the translation start site) may influence ALDH2 activity through effects on transcriptional activity. The A allele is predicted to be less active transcriptionally than the G allele.
Therefore, we hypothesized that individuals with 1 or 2 A alleles would have exaggerated reactions to alcohol.
The frequency of the ALDH2*A allele was 0.87 in the 129 Jewish individuals tested. Among the general Jewish population, those who were homozygous for ALDH2*A drank fewer drinks per occasion than individuals who were not homozygous for the ALDH2*A allele, but did not drink significantly less frequently.
When the other covariates (ADH1B genotype, gender, and population) were controlled for, there was a marginal association between ALDH2A genotype and quantity of alcohol consumed and the number of drinks consumed before feeling drowsy.
This study suggests that the ALDH2*A allele status may correlate with variations in alcohol consumption patterns among Jews, independent of the effect of ADH1B genotype.
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