Biomarkers to Measure Treatment Response for Alcohol Dependence

The goal of this study was to identify molecular mechanisms regulated by pharmacological and placebo effects of binge-drinking at a transcriptome-wide level. We performed RNA-seq on PBMC samples collected from healthy heavy social drinkers (N=18) enrolled in an upto 12-day in-patient, randomized, double-blind, cross-over human laboratory trial testing three alcohol doses: Placebo, medium (0.05g/kg (men), 0.04g/kg (women)), and binge (1g/kg (men), 0.9g/kg (women)), administered in three 4-day experiments, separated by minimum of 7-day washout periods. Effects of beverage doses on differential expression of genes (DEGs) within each experiment compared to its own baseline, across experimental sequences in which each beverage dose was administered, and responsiveness to regular alcohol compared to placebo assessing pharmacological effects of alcohol were analyzed.