Browsing by Author "Nurnberger, John"
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Item Alcohol use disorder is associated with higher risks of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases: A study of US insurance claims data(Wiley, 2022-11-21) Zhang, Pengyue; Edenberg, Howard J.; Nurnberger, John; Lai, Dongbing; Cheng, Feixiong; Liu, Yunlong; Biostatistics, School of Public HealthIntroduction: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is on the ascendancy in the US older adult population. The association between AUD and adverse brain outcomes remains inconclusive. Method: In a retrospective cohort design using US insurance claim data (2007-2020), 129,182 individuals with AUD were matched with 129,182 controls by age, sex, race, and clinical characteristics. We investigated the association between AUD and adverse brain outcomes using Cox analysis, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and log-rank test. Results: After adjusting for covariates, AUD was associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease (female adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.78, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.68-1.90, p < 0.001; male adjusted HR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.71-1.91, p < 0.001) and a higher risk of Parkinson's disease (female adjusted HR = 1.49, 95% CI: 1.32-1.68, p < 0.001; male adjusted HR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.32-1.52, p < 0.001) in the overall sample. In separate analyses of Black, White, and Hispanic individuals, those with AUD had higher risk of Alzheimer's disease (adjusted HRs ≥1.58; Ps ≤ 0.001). A significantly elevated risk for Parkinson's disease was found only in the White subpopulation (female adjusted HR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.36-1.77, p < 0.001; male adjusted HR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.33-1.57, p < 0.001). Conclusions: AUD is associated with Alzheimer's disease. AUD is associated with Parkinson's disease in White people. Cognitive screening and neurological examination among older adults with AUD hold the promise for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Highlights: Alcohol use disorder is associated with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Alcohol use disorder is associated with Parkinson's disease in White people.Item Analysis of whole genome-transcriptomic organization in brain to identify genes associated with alcoholism(Springer Nature, 2019-02-14) Kapoor, Manav; Wang, Jen-Chyong; Farris, Sean P.; Liu, Yunlong; McClintick, Jeanette; Gupta, Ishaan; Meyers, Jacquelyn L.; Bertelsen, Sarah; Chao, Michael; Nurnberger, John; Tischfield, Jay; Harari, Oscar; Zeran, Li; Hesselbrock, Victor; Bauer, Lance; Raj, Towfique; Porjesz, Bernice; Agrawal, Arpana; Foroud, Tatiana; Edenberg, Howard J.; Mayfield, R. Dayne; Goate, Alison; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of MedicineAlcohol exposure triggers changes in gene expression and biological pathways in human brain. We explored alterations in gene expression in the Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC) of 65 alcoholics and 73 controls of European descent, and identified 129 genes that showed altered expression (FDR < 0.05) in subjects with alcohol dependence. Differentially expressed genes were enriched for pathways related to interferon signaling and Growth Arrest and DNA Damage-inducible 45 (GADD45) signaling. A coexpression module (thistle2) identified by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was significantly correlated with alcohol dependence, alcohol consumption, and AUDIT scores. Genes in the thistle2 module were enriched with genes related to calcium signaling pathways and showed significant downregulation of these pathways, as well as enrichment for biological processes related to nicotine response and opioid signaling. A second module (brown4) showed significant upregulation of pathways related to immune signaling. Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) for genes in the brown4 module were also enriched for genetic associations with alcohol dependence and alcohol consumption in large genome-wide studies included in the Psychiatric Genetic Consortium and the UK Biobank's alcohol consumption dataset. By leveraging multi-omics data, this transcriptome analysis has identified genes and biological pathways that could provide insight for identifying therapeutic targets for alcohol dependence.Item Association of Polygenic Liability for Alcohol Dependence and EEG Connectivity in Adolescence and Young Adulthood(MDPI, 2019-10-17) Meyers, Jacquelyn L.; Chorlian, David B.; Johnson, Emma C.; Pandey, Ashwini K.; Kamarajan, Chella; Salvatore, Jessica E.; Aliev, Fazil; Subbie-Saenz de Viteri, Stacey; Zhang, Jian; Chao, Michael; Kapoor, Manav; Hesselbrock, Victor; Kramer, John; Kuperman, Samuel; Nurnberger, John; Tischfield, Jay; Goate, Alison; Foroud, Tatiana; Dick, Danielle M.; Edenberg, Howard J.; Agrawal, Arpana; Porjesz, Bernice; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of MedicineDifferences in the connectivity of large-scale functional brain networks among individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUD), as well as those at risk for AUD, point to dysfunctional neural communication and related cognitive impairments. In this study, we examined how polygenic risk scores (PRS), derived from a recent GWAS of DSM-IV Alcohol Dependence (AD) conducted by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, relate to longitudinal measures of interhemispheric and intrahemispheric EEG connectivity (alpha, theta, and beta frequencies) in adolescent and young adult offspring from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) assessed between ages 12 and 31. Our findings indicate that AD PRS (p-threshold < 0.001) was associated with increased fronto-central, tempo-parietal, centro-parietal, and parietal-occipital interhemispheric theta and alpha connectivity in males only from ages 18-31 (beta coefficients ranged from 0.02-0.06, p-values ranged from 10-6-10-12), but not in females. Individuals with higher AD PRS also demonstrated more performance deficits on neuropsychological tasks (Tower of London task, visual span test) as well as increased risk for lifetime DSM-5 alcohol and opioid use disorders. We conclude that measures of neural connectivity, together with neurocognitive performance and substance use behavior, can be used to further understanding of how genetic risk variants from large GWAS of AUD may influence brain function. In addition, these data indicate the importance of examining sex and developmental effects, which otherwise may be masked. Understanding of neural mechanisms linking genetic variants emerging from GWAS to risk for AUD throughout development may help to identify specific points when neurocognitive prevention and intervention efforts may be most effective.Item Association of the OPRM1 Variant rs1799971 (A118G) with Non-Specific Liability to Substance Dependence in a Collaborative de novo Meta-Analysis of European-Ancestry Cohorts(Springer, 2016-03) Schwantes-An, Tae-Hwi; Zhang, Juan; Chen, Li-Shiun; Hartz, Sarah M.; Culverhouse, Robert C.; Chen, Xiangning; Coon, Hilary; Frank, Josef; Kamens, Helen M.; Konte, Bettina; Kovanen, Leena; Latvala, Antti; Legrand, Lisa N.; Maher, Brion S.; Melroy, Whitney E.; Nelson, Elliot C.; Reid, Mark W.; Robinson, Jason D.; Shen, Pei-Hong; Yang, Bao-Zhu; Andrews, Judy A.; Aveyard, Paul; Beltcheva, Olga; Brown, Sandra A.; Cannon, Dale S.; Cichon, Sven; Corley, Robin P.; Dahmen, Norbert; Degenhardt, Louisa; Foroud, Tatiana; Gaebel, Wolfgang; Giegling, Ina; Glatt, Stephen J.; Grucza, Richard A.; Hardin, Jill; Hartmann, Annette M.; Heath, Andrew C.; Herms, Stefan; Hodgkinson, Colin A.; Hoffmann, Per; Hops, Hyman; Huizinga, David; Ising, Marcus; Johnson, Eric O.; Johnstone, Elaine; Kaneva, Radka P.; Kendler, Kenneth S.; Kiefer, Falk; Kranzler, Henry R.; Krauter, Ken S.; Levran, Orna; Lucae, Susanne; Lynskey, Michael T.; Maier, Wolfgang; Mann, Karl; Martin, Nicholas G.; Mattheisen, Manuel; Montgomery, Grant W.; Müller-Myhsok, Bertram; Murphy, Michael F.; Neale, Michael C.; Nikolov, Momchil A.; Nishita, Denise; Nöthen, Markus M.; Nurnberger, John; Partonen, Timo; Pergadia, Michele L.; Reynolds, Maureen; Ridinger, Monika; Rose, Richard J.; Rouvinen-Lagerström, Noora; Scherbaum, Norbert; Schmäl, Christine; Soyka, Michael; Stallings, Michael C.; Steffens, Michael; Treutlein, Jens; Tsuang, Ming; Wallace, Tamara L.; Wodarz, Norbert; Yuferov, Vadim; Zill, Peter; Bergen, Andrew W.; Chen, Jingchun; Cinciripini, Paul M.; Edenberg, Howard J.; Ehringer, Marissa A.; Ferrell, Robert E.; Gelernter, Joel; Goldman, David; Hewitt, John K.; Hopfer, Christian J.; Iacono, William G.; Kaprio, Jaakko; Kreek, Mary Jeanne; Kremensky, Ivo M.; Madden, Pamela A.F.; McGue, Matt; Munafò, Marcus R.; Philibert, Robert A.; Rietschel, Marcella; Roy, Alec; Rujescu, Dan; Saarikoski, Sirkku T.; Swan, Gary E.; Todorov, Alexandre A.; Vanyukov, Michael M.; Weiss, Robert B.; Bierut, Laura J.; Saccone, Nancy L.; Department of Medical & Molecular Genetics, IU School of MedicineThe mu1 opioid receptor gene, OPRM1, has long been a high-priority candidate for human genetic studies of addiction. Because of its potential functional significance, the non-synonymous variant rs1799971 (A118G, Asn40Asp) in OPRM1 has been extensively studied, yet its role in addiction has remained unclear, with conflicting association findings. To resolve the question of what effect, if any, rs1799971 has on substance dependence risk, we conducted collaborative meta-analyses of 25 datasets with over 28,000 European-ancestry subjects. We investigated non-specific risk for "general" substance dependence, comparing cases dependent on any substance to controls who were non-dependent on all assessed substances. We also examined five specific substance dependence diagnoses: DSM-IV alcohol, opioid, cannabis, and cocaine dependence, and nicotine dependence defined by the proxy of heavy/light smoking (cigarettes-per-day >20 vs. ≤ 10). The G allele showed a modest protective effect on general substance dependence (OR = 0.90, 95% C.I. [0.83-0.97], p value = 0.0095, N = 16,908). We observed similar effects for each individual substance, although these were not statistically significant, likely because of reduced sample sizes. We conclude that rs1799971 contributes to mechanisms of addiction liability that are shared across different addictive substances. This project highlights the benefits of examining addictive behaviors collectively and the power of collaborative data sharing and meta-analyses.Item COVID-19 pandemic stressors are associated with reported increases in frequency of drunkenness among individuals with a history of alcohol use disorder(Springer Nature, 2023-10-06) Meyers, Jacquelyn L.; McCutcheon, Vivia V.; Horne-Osipenko, Kristina A.; Waters, Lawrence R.; Barr, Peter; Chan, Grace; Chorlian, David B.; Johnson, Emma C.; Kuo, Sally I-Chun; Kramer, John R.; Dick, Danielle M.; Kuperman, Samuel; Kamarajan, Chella; Pandey, Gayathri; Singman, Dzov; Subbie-Saenz de Viteri, Stacey; Salvatore, Jessica E.; Bierut, Laura J.; Foroud, Tatiana; Goate, Alison; Hesselbrock, Victor; Nurnberger, John; Plaweck, Martin H.; Schuckit, Marc A.; Agrawal, Arpana; Edenberg, Howard J.; Bucholz, Kathleen K.; Porjesz, Bernice; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of MedicineSome sources report increases in alcohol use have been observed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women. Cross-sectional studies suggest that specific COVID-19-related stressful experiences (e.g., social disconnection) may be driving such increases in the general population. Few studies have explored these topics among individuals with a history of Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD), an especially vulnerable population. Drawing on recent data collected by the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA; COVID-19 study N = 1651, 62% women, age range: 30-91) in conjunction with AUD history data collected on the sample since 1990, we investigated associations of COVID-19 related stressors and coping activities with changes in drunkenness frequency since the start of the pandemic. Analyses were conducted for those without a history of AUD (N: 645) and three groups of participants with a history of AUD prior to the start of the pandemic: (1) those experiencing AUD symptoms (N: 606), (2) those in remission who were drinking (N: 231), and (3) those in remission who were abstinent (had not consumed alcohol for 5+ years; N: 169). Gender-stratified models were also examined. Exploratory analyses examined the moderating effects of 'problematic alcohol use' polygenic risk scores (PRS) and neural connectivity (i.e., posterior interhemispheric alpha EEG coherence) on associations between COVID-19 stressors and coping activities with changes in the frequency of drunkenness. Increases in drunkenness frequency since the start of the pandemic were higher among those with a lifetime AUD diagnosis experiencing symptoms prior to the start of the pandemic (14% reported increased drunkenness) when compared to those without a history of AUD (5% reported increased drunkenness). Among individuals in remission from AUD prior to the start of the pandemic, rates of increased drunkenness were 10% for those who were drinking pre-pandemic and 4% for those who had previously been abstinent. Across all groups, women reported nominally greater increases in drunkenness frequency when compared with men, although only women experiencing pre-pandemic AUD symptoms reported significantly greater rates of increased drunkenness since the start of the pandemic compared to men in this group (17% of women vs. 5% of men). Among those without a prior history of AUD, associations between COVID-19 risk and protective factors with increases in drunkenness frequency were not observed. Among all groups with a history of AUD (including those with AUD symptoms and those remitted from AUD), perceived stress was associated with increases in drunkenness. Among the remitted-abstinent group, essential worker status was associated with increases in drunkenness. Gender differences in these associations were observed: among women in the remitted-abstinent group, essential worker status, perceived stress, media consumption, and decreased social interactions were associated with increases in drunkenness. Among men in the remitted-drinking group, perceived stress was associated with increases in drunkenness, and increased relationship quality was associated with decreases in drunkenness. Exploratory analyses indicated that associations between family illness or death with increases in drunkenness and increased relationship quality with decreases in drunkenness were more pronounced among the remitted-drinking participants with higher PRS. Associations between family illness or death, media consumption, and economic hardships with increases in drunkenness and healthy coping with decreases in drunkenness were more pronounced among the remitted-abstinent group with lower interhemispheric alpha EEG connectivity. Our results demonstrated that only individuals with pre-pandemic AUD symptoms reported greater increases in drunkenness frequency since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to those without a lifetime history of AUD. This increase was more pronounced among women than men in this group. However, COVID-19-related stressors and coping activities were associated with changes in the frequency of drunkenness among all groups of participants with a prior history of AUD, including those experiencing AUD symptoms, as well as abstinent and non-abstinent participants in remission. Perceived stress, essential worker status, media consumption, social connections (especially for women), and relationship quality (especially for men) are specific areas of focus for designing intervention and prevention strategies aimed at reducing pandemic-related alcohol misuse among this particularly vulnerable group. Interestingly, these associations were not observed for individuals without a prior history of AUD, supporting prior literature that demonstrates that widespread stressors (e.g., pandemics, terrorist attacks) disproportionately impact the mental health and alcohol use of those with a prior history of problems.Item CYP2A6 metabolism in the development of smoking behaviors in young adults(Wiley, 2018-01) Olfson, Emily; Bloom, Joseph; Bertelsen, Sarah; Budde, John P.; Breslau, Naomi; Brooks, Andrew; Culverhouse, Robert; Chan, Grace; Chen, Li-Shiun; Chorlian, David; Dick, Danielle M.; Edenberg, Howard J.; Hartz, Sarah; Hatsukami, Dorothy; Hesselbrock, Victor M.; Johnson, Eric O.; Kramer, John R.; Kuperman, Samuel; Meyers, Jacquelyn L.; Nurnberger, John; Porjesz, Bernice; Saccone, Nancy L.; Schuckit, Marc A.; Stitzel, Jerry; Tischfield, Jay A.; Rice, John P.; Goate, Alison; Bierut, Laura J.; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of MedicineCytochrome P450 2A6 (CYP2A6) encodes the enzyme responsible for the majority of nicotine metabolism. Previous studies support that slow metabolizers smoke fewer cigarettes once nicotine dependent but provide conflicting results on the role of CYP2A6 in the development of dependence. By focusing on the critical period of young adulthood, this study examines the relationship of CYP2A6 variation and smoking milestones. A total of 1209 European American young adults enrolled in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism were genotyped for CYP2A6 variants to calculate a previously well-validated metric that estimates nicotine metabolism. This metric was not associated with the transition from never smoking to smoking initiation nor with the transition from initiation to daily smoking (P > 0.4). But among young adults who had become daily smokers (n = 506), decreased metabolism was associated with increased risk of nicotine dependence (P = 0.03) (defined as Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence score ≥4). This finding was replicated in the Collaborative Genetic Study of Nicotine Dependence with 335 young adult daily smokers (P = 0.02). Secondary meta-analysis indicated that slow metabolizers had a 53 percent increased odds (OR = 1.53, 95 percent CI 1.11-2.11, P = 0.009) of developing nicotine dependence compared with normal metabolizers. Furthermore, secondary analyses examining four-level response of time to first cigarette after waking (>60, 31-60, 6-30, ≤5 minutes) demonstrated a robust effect of the metabolism metric in Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (P = 0.03) and Collaborative Genetic Study of Nicotine Dependence (P = 0.004), illustrating the important role of this measure of dependence. These findings highlight the complex role of CYP2A6 variation across different developmental stages of smoking behaviors.Item Detecting significant genotype-phenotype association rules in bipolar disorder: market research meets complex genetics(SpringerOpen, 2018-11-11) Breuer, René; Mattheisen, Manuel; Frank, Josef; Krumm, Bertram; Treutlein, Jens; Kassem, Layla; Strohmaier, Jana; Herms, Stefan; Mühleisen, Thomas W.; Degenhardt, Franziska; Cichon, Sven; Nöthen, Markus M.; Karypis, George; Kelsoe, John; Greenwood, Tiffany; Nievergelt, Caroline; Shilling, Paul; Shekhtman, Tatyana; Edenberg, Howard; Craig, David; Szelinger, Szabolcs; Nurnberger, John; Gershon, Elliot; Alliey‑Rodriguez, Ney; Zandi, Peter; Goes, Fernando; Schork, Nicholas; Smith, Erin; Koller, Daniel; Zhang, Peng; Badner, Judith; Berrettini, Wade; Bloss, Cinnamon; Byerley, William; Coryell, William; Foroud, Tatiana; Guo, Yirin; Hipolito, Maria; Keating, Brendan; Lawson, William; Liu, Chunyu; Mahon, Pamela; McInnis, Melvin; Murray, Sarah; Nwulia, Evaristus; Potash, James; Rice, John; Scheftner, William; Zöllner, Sebastian; McMahon, Francis J.; Rietschel, Marcella; Schulze, Thomas G.; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of MedicineBACKGROUND: Disentangling the etiology of common, complex diseases is a major challenge in genetic research. For bipolar disorder (BD), several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been performed. Similar to other complex disorders, major breakthroughs in explaining the high heritability of BD through GWAS have remained elusive. To overcome this dilemma, genetic research into BD, has embraced a variety of strategies such as the formation of large consortia to increase sample size and sequencing approaches. Here we advocate a complementary approach making use of already existing GWAS data: a novel data mining procedure to identify yet undetected genotype-phenotype relationships. We adapted association rule mining, a data mining technique traditionally used in retail market research, to identify frequent and characteristic genotype patterns showing strong associations to phenotype clusters. We applied this strategy to three independent GWAS datasets from 2835 phenotypically characterized patients with BD. In a discovery step, 20,882 candidate association rules were extracted. RESULTS: Two of these rules-one associated with eating disorder and the other with anxiety-remained significant in an independent dataset after robust correction for multiple testing. Both showed considerable effect sizes (odds ratio ~ 3.4 and 3.0, respectively) and support previously reported molecular biological findings. CONCLUSION: Our approach detected novel specific genotype-phenotype relationships in BD that were missed by standard analyses like GWAS. While we developed and applied our method within the context of BD gene discovery, it may facilitate identifying highly specific genotype-phenotype relationships in subsets of genome-wide data sets of other complex phenotype with similar epidemiological properties and challenges to gene discovery efforts.Item Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies: validity and reliability of the Croatian version(Wolters Kluwer, 2017-02) Kralj, Žana; Dedić, Milenka; Kovačević, Anđela; Malički, Mario; Dedić, Jelena; Pelivan, Marina; Vuković, Dubravka; Fisher, Carrie; Kember, Rachel L.; Nurnberger, John; Bućan, Maja; Britvić, Dolores; Psychiatry, School of MedicineOBJECTIVE: To test the validity and reliability of the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies (DIGS) in patients with mental illness in Croatia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Following translation, back-translation, and pilot testing, the Croatian version of DIGS (CRO-DIGS) was administered to a total of 150 inpatients and outpatients diagnosed at the Clinical Hospital in Split with bipolar and major depressive disorder (n=56), schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (n=62), and alcohol dependence or use disorders (n=32). Initial testing was performed independently by one interviewer and one observer blinded to the diagnosis, and a retest was performed after 8 weeks by a third examiner. RESULTS: The validity of CRO-DIGS was high (κ=0.916), with an excellent inter-rater (κ=0.824) reliability, especially for bipolar disorder (κ=0.956). Following an 8 week test-retest interval, the reliability for all diagnoses was found to be excellent (κ=0.843). CONCLUSION: Our study has shown excellent validity and reliability of the Croatian version of DIGS, making it a promising instrument to assess mental illness of patients. The development of a valid and reliable diagnostic tool such as the CRO-DIGS will considerably advance the scientific communities' ability to carry out genetic studies of psychiatric illness in the region.Item Family history of substance use disorder and parental impulsivity are differentially associated with neural responses during risky decision-making(Frontiers Media, 2023-06-21) Aloi, Joseph; Kwon, Elizabeth; Hummer, Tom A.; Crum, Kathleen I.; Shah, Nikhil; Pratt, Lauren; Aalsma, Matthew C.; Finn, Peter; Nurnberger, John; Hulvershorn, Leslie A.; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBackground: Risky decision-making is associated with the development of substance use behaviors during adolescence. Although prior work has investigated risky decision-making in adolescents at familial high risk for developing substance use disorders (SUDs), little research has controlled for the presence of co-morbid externalizing disorders (EDs). Additionally, few studies have investigated the role of parental impulsivity in offspring neurobiology associated with risky decision-making. Methods: One-hundred twenty-five children (28 healthy controls, 47 psychiatric controls with EDs without a familial history of SUD, and 50 high-risk children with co-morbid EDs with a familial history of SUD) participated in the Balloon Analog Risk Task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Impulsivity for parents and children was measured using the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. Results: We found that individuals in the psychiatric control group showed greater activation, as chances of balloon explosion increased, while making choices, relative to the healthy control and high-risk groups in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC). We also found a positive association between greater activation and parental impulsivity in these regions. However, within rACC, this relationship was moderated by group, such that there was a positive relationship between activation and parental impulsivity in the HC group, but an inverse relationship in the HR group. Conclusions: These findings suggest that there are key differences in the neurobiology underlying risky decision-making in individuals with EDs with and without a familial history of SUD. The current findings build on existing models of neurobiological factors influencing addiction risk by integrating parental factors. This work paves the way for more precise risk models in which to test preventive interventions.Item Genome wide association studies of the Self-Rating of Effects of Ethanol (SRE)(Wiley, 2020-03) Lai, Dongbing; Wetherill, Leah; Kapoor, Manav; Johnson, Emma C.; Schwandt, Melanie; Ramchandani, Vijay A.; Goldman, David; Joslyn, Geoff; Rao, Xi; Liu, Yunlong; Farris, Sean; Mayfield, R. Dayne; Dick, Danielle; Hesselbrock, Victor; Kramer, John; McCutcheon, Vivia V.; Nurnberger, John; Tischfield, Jay; Goate, Alison; Edenberg, Howard J.; Porjesz, Bernice; Agrawal, Arpana; Foroud, Tatiana; Schuckit, Marc; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of MedicineThe level of response (LR) to alcohol as measured with the Self-Report of the Effects of Alcohol Retrospective Questionnaire (SRE) evaluates the number of standard drinks usually required for up to four effects. The need for a higher number of drinks for effects is genetically influenced and predicts higher risks for heavy drinking and alcohol problems. We conducted genome-wide association study (GWAS) in the African-American (COGA-AA, N = 1527 from 309 families) and European-American (COGA-EA, N = 4723 from 956 families) subsamples of the Collaborative Studies on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) for two SRE scores: SRE-T (average of first five times of drinking, the period of heaviest drinking, and the most recent 3 months of consumption) and SRE-5 (the first five times of drinking). We then meta-analyzed the two COGA subsamples (COGA-AA + EA). Both SRE-T and SRE-5 were modestly heritable (h2 : 21%-31%) and genetically correlated with alcohol dependence (AD) and DSM-IV AD criterion count (rg : 0.35-0.76). Genome-wide significant associations were observed (SRE-T: chromosomes 6, rs140154945, COGA-EA P = 3.30E-08 and 11, rs10647170, COGA-AA+EA P = 3.53E-09; SRE-5: chromosome13, rs4770359, COGA-AA P = 2.92E-08). Chromosome 11 was replicated in an EA dataset from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism intramural program. In silico functional analyses and RNA expression analyses suggest that the chromosome 6 locus is an eQTL for KIF25. Polygenic risk scores derived using the COGA SRE-T and SRE-5 GWAS predicted 0.47% to 2.48% of variances in AD and DSM-IV AD criterion count in independent datasets. This study highlights the genetic contribution of alcohol response phenotypes to the etiology of alcohol use disorders.