Causes of alcoholism, a mutation that makes you an alcoholic -SNP rs1799971

Recently and browsing the SNPedia I discovered a new SNP that caught my attention, specifically the rs1799971 which is located in the gene OPRM1 from receiver mu opioid receptor, which depending on the allele we may be more likely to develop alcoholism and thus be one of the causes of alcoholism.

How does alcohol addiction work?

The alcohol addiction is associated with a reward system in the brain when it reinforces feel-good behaviours, as can happen with drinking by releasing endorphins and dopamine. When its consumption is prolonged over time, the brain brain of a person adapts gradually to the point where higher and more excessive amounts are required to produce the same pleasure response that occurs with alcohol intake.

Well, from a genetic point of view, researchers have always suspected that this addiction could be a combination of genetic plus environmental causes that increase the risk of alcohol addiction and one of the causes of alcoholism.

In a study of 700 Mexican Americans they found that they drank around three times more than men of other ethnicities.

So, in relation to the SNP alleles, there are two variants, (G and A)In a study of over 200 alcoholics, half of whom were treated with the G and A allele, people carrying the G allele have a greater “craving” for alcohol than those with the A allele. In a study of more than 200 alcoholics, half of whom were treated with naltrexonean opioid antagonist drug, carriers of the G allele who received the drug had higher percentages of days of abstinence and a lower percentage of days of heavy use than those who were treated with placebo. While A allele carriers showed no significant differences with this medication.

SNP allele distribution worldwide

allele distribution of rs1799971 — Percentage of occurrence of each allele in different continents, where we can see that in Asia the G allele appears in a high proportion, while in Africa this allele is practically absent. ALL: All the world; AFR: Africa; AMR: America; EAS: East Asia; EUR: Europe; SAS: South Asia.

Although all these indications suggest that this might be one of the ways to see whether a person might be more or less likely to develop alcohol dependence, the truth is that we are still we are still a long way from finding outIt depends on many more environmental factors such as social and economic status.

Find out about another SNP responsible for lactose tolerance on this blog here.