A study led by the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China, has identified three distinct molecular subgroups of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that are linked to disease severity and progression. As reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine, patients classified as being in the first group (NAFLD-mSI) had…

An expression analysis study has uncovered new genes linked to alcoholism, or alcohol use disorder (AUD). The novel differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in two of the brain’s regions that have already been linked to alcoholism. The GenOmics and Translational Research Center study was reported in Molecular Psychiatry and…

Heavy alcohol drinking and withdrawal in mice is linked to pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP), according to work by researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. PACAP is found in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Further, the team found that inhibiting PACAP in…

Investigators led by a researcher from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine report that a one-time administration gene therapy shows potential as a treatment for serious alcohol addiction. The study, published today in the journal Nature Medicine, used an accepted primate model to show that…

Researchers for the Translation Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Temple University have uncovered a link to decreases in an enzyme that is linked to nonalchoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). A broad term for a range of conditions, NAFLD is an increasingly common—and potentially deadly—condition caused by an excess accumulation of…

Multiple gene variants, including some previously unknown, have been linked to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in children. Researchers confirmed that the PNPLA3 gene is associated with the greatest risk for having NAFLD. A different SNP in the gene TM6SF2 was most strongly associated with what percentage of liver cells…

Promising biomarkers for progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) were found in a study led by researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope. They identified differences in DNA methylation (DNAm) that accurately predicted different stages of liver fibrosis in as many as 94%…

A type of RNA methylation that varies between the sexes can help protect the liver from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), according to a mouse study from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). NAFLD is an umbrella term for a range of liver conditions affecting people who drink little…

The DNA in our cells is susceptible to a barrage of agents that can cause damage, including radiation or toxic substances such as alcohol. Researchers of the Hubrecht Institute (KNAW) in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K., have discovered a new way in…

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, have shown how acetate that is produced when the liver breaks down alcohol travels to the brain, where it is involved in epigenetic processes that impact on the expression…

Scientists based at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, U.K., using mouse models to show how alcohol exposure leads to permanent genetic damage, have found that acetaldehyde, an endogenous and alcohol-derived metabolite, can break and damage DNA within blood stem cells. While alcohol isn't currently consider causitive for blood cancers,…

A study led by researchers at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center has uncovered a gene, β-Klotho, which is linked to the regulation of the social consumption of alcohol. The researchers found that a gene variant, detected in approximately 40% of the 105,000 individuals within this study, is associated with…

Healthier midlife behaviors lead to better outcomes for age-related brain diseases even in people with genetic predisposition, research using data from the U.K. Biobank showed. A team led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston found that after about 12 years of follow-up, each 5-point improvement in subjects’…

When compared to seven other anti-diabetic drugs, semaglutide may significantly lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in people with type 2 diabetes, according to new research from the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. These results, which were based on data from a national health records database, were consistent across…

A new study from investigators from the Clínica Universidad de Navarra in Spain shows that approximately 40% of postmenopausal hormone receptor-positive breast cancer cases may be associated with excess body fat. This finding, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, shows that the attributable effects of excess body…