We can put a drop of this brain cDNA on the gene array and each spot of DNA that shows a colored tag will indicate that it is a gene that is turned on in the brain. Thus, each gene or 'DNA element' on the array has a color that reflects how much the gene is turned on in the alcoholic relative to the control. In the ACER study, more than 4,000 genes in brain tissue were analyzed simultaneously. These findings not only provide evidence for an extensive reprogramming of brain gene expression due to alcoholism, but also identify several functional clusters of genes that are particularly affected by this disease. This is due to our lack of understanding of the process of addiction.
Alcoholism is a brain disease, and the brain is still a frontier for biological research.
This study is a beginning to unraveling the undesirable changes in the brain produced by chronic exposure to alcohol. Such studies will, eventually, result in new and better treatments for alcoholism and other addictions. The study was funded by the Waggoner Foundation, the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the National Institutes of Health, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, and the State of California through the University of California at San Francisco.