Apr 5 2024University of California San Diego Sandra Sanchez-Roige, Ph.D., corresponding author and associate professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, explained that the study used genetic data to broadly classify individuals as being European, Latin American and African American. Such classifications "are needed to avoid a statistical genetics pitfall called population stratification," noted co-author Abraham A. Palmer, Ph.D.
The people who have the minor allele variant of the SNP convert ethanol to acetaldehyde very rapidly. And that causes a lot of negative effects." "These variants are primarily associated with how much someone may consume alcohol," she said. "And they also tend to prevent alcohol use disorder, because these variants are primarily associated with the quantity of alcohol someone may drink."
They data-mined the analyses of DNA from saliva samples submitted by consenting 23andMe research participants, as well as the responses to the surveys of health and behavior available from the 23andMe database, and found a constellation of associations, not necessarily connected with alcohol. Individuals with the alcohol-protecting alleles had generally better health, including less chronic fatigue and needing less daily assistance with daily tasks.
Related StoriesSanchez-Roige said that such broad, hypothesis-free studies are only possible if researchers have access to very large sets of data. Many datasets, including the one used in the study, rely heavily on individuals with European ancestry. "Understanding the underlying mechanisms of these effects could have implications for treatments and preventative medicine," Sanchez-Roige noted.