Gene could decrease likelihood of developing alcoholic cirrhosis

Date:
September 11, 2020
Source:
Indiana University School of Medicine
Summary:
Researchers are learning more about how a person's genes play a
role in the possibility they'll suffer from alcoholic cirrhosis with
the discovery of a gene that could make the disease less likely.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are learning more
about how a person's genes play a role in the possibility they'll suffer
from alcoholic cirrhosis with the discovery of a gene that could make
the disease less likely.


========================================================================== Alcoholic cirrhosis can happen after years of drinking too much alcohol.

According to the researchers, discovering more about this illness couldn't
come at a more important time.

"Based on U.S. data, alcohol-associated liver disease is on the rise
in terms of the prevalence and incidents and it is happening more
often in younger patients," said Suthat Liangpunsakul, MD, professor
of medicine, dean's scholar in medical research for the Department of
Medicine Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and one of the
principal investigators of the study. "There's a real public health
problem involving the consumption of alcohol and people starting to
drink at a younger age." The team describes their findings in a new
paper published in Hepatology. The GenomALC Consortium was funded by the National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institute of Health (NIH). This genome-wide association study
began several years ago and is one of the largest studies related to
alcoholic cirrhosis ever performed. DNA samples were taken from over
1,700 patients from sites in the United States, several countries in
Europe and Australia and sent to IU School of Medicine where the team
performed the DNA isolation for genome analysis. The patients were divided
into two groups -- one made up of heavy drinkers that never had a history
of alcohol- induced liver injury or liver disease and a second group of
heavy drinkers who did have alcoholic cirrhosis.

"Our key finding is a gene called Fas Associated Factor Family Member 2,
or FAF2," said Tae-Hwi Schwantes-An, PhD, assistant research professor of medical and molecular genetics and the lead author of the study. "There's
this convergence of findings now that are pointing to the genes involved
in lipid droplet organization pathway, and that seems to be one of
the biological reasonings of why certain people get liver disease
and why certain people do not." The researchers are anticipating to
study this gene more closely and looking at its relationship to other, previously-discovered genes that can make a person more likely to develop alcoholic cirrhosis.

"We know for a fact those genes are linked together in a biological
process, so the logical next step is to study how the changes in these
genes alter the function of that process, whether it's less efficient in
one group of people, or maybe it's inhibited in some way," Schwantes-An
said. "We don't know exactly what the biological underpinning of that
is, but now we have a pretty well- defined target where we can look
at these variants and see how they relate to alcoholic cirrhosis."
As their research continues, the team hopes to eventually find a way
to identify this genetic factor in patients with the goal of helping
them prevent alcoholic cirrhosis in the future or developing targeted
therapies that can help individuals in a more personalized way.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Indiana_University_School_of_Medicine. Original written by Christina
Griffiths. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Tae‐Hwi Schwantes‐An, Rebecca Darlay, Philippe Mathurin,
Steven Masson, Suthat Liangpunsakul, Sebastian Mueller, Guruprasad
P.

Aithal, Florian Eyer, Dermot Gleeson, Andrew Thompson, Beat
Muellhaupt, Felix Stickel, Michael Soyka, David Goldman,
Tiebing Liang, Lawrence Lumeng, Munir Pirmohamed, Bertrand
Nalpas, Jean‐Marc Jacquet, Romain Moirand, Pierre Nahon,
Sylvie Naveau, Pascal Perney, Greg Botwin, Paul S. Haber, Helmut
K. Seitz, Christopher P. Day, Tatiana M. Foroud, Ann K. Daly,
Heather J. Cordell, John B. Whitfield, Timothy R. Morgan, Devanshi
Seth. Genome‐wide association study and meta‐analysis
on alcohol‐related liver cirrhosis identifies novel genetic
risk factors. Hepatology, 2020; DOI: 10.1002/hep.31535 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200911200010.htm

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