Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027497 (nausea)
 23,468 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Differences in the pharmacokinetics of alcohol absorption and elimination are, in part, genetically determined. There are polymorphic variants of the two main enzymes responsible for ethanol oxidation in liver, alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase. The frequency of occurrence of these variants, which have been shown to display strikingly different catalytic properties, differs among different racial populations. Since the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase in liver is a rate-limiting factor for ethanol metabolism in experimental animals, it is likely that the type and content of the polymorphic isoenzyme subunit encoded at ADH2, beta-subunit, and at ADH3, the gamma-subunit, are contributing factors to the genetic variability in ethanol elimination rate. The recent development of methods for genotyping individuals at these loci using white cell DNA will allow us to test this hypothesis as well as any relationship between ADH genotype and the susceptibility to alcoholism or alcohol-related pathology. A polymorphic variant of human liver mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase, ADLH2, which has little or no acetaldehyde oxidizing activity has been identified. Individuals with the deficient ALDH2 phenotype do not have altered ethanol elimination rates but they do exhibit high blood acetaldehyde levels and dysphoric symptoms such as facial flushing, nausea and tachycardia, after drinking alcohol. Because acetaldehyde is so reactive, it binds to free amino groups of proteins including a 37 kilodalton hepatic protein-acetaldehyde adduct and may elicit an antibody response. We would predict that individuals who have low ALDH2 activity because of liver disease or because they have the inactive ALDH2 variant isoenzyme might form more protein-acetaldehyde adducts and elicit a greater immune response. These adducts may represent good biological markers of alcohol abuse and may also play a role in liver injury due to chronic alcohol consumption.
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PMID:Genetic polymorphism of enzymes of alcohol metabolism and susceptibility to alcoholic liver disease. 306 25

The aims of this study are to investigate whether self-reported facial flushing postalcohol consumption (PAC) among subjects with ALDH2*1/*1 can be attributed to ADH2 or ADH3 and whether the prediction of ALDH2 genotype can be improved by examining the combination of flushing and other accompanying reactions of PAC sensitivity. Fifty-eight subjects of Han ancestry in Taiwan were interviewed for alcohol-sensitivity reactions and their blood samples were genotyped for ALDH2, ADH2, and ADH3. For subjects with ALDH2*1/*1 (n = 46), 70% reported to have no flushing PAC and 30% reported flushing PAC. When subjects with ALDH2*1/*1 had ADH2*1/*1 (n = 11), all reported to have no flushing; otherwise, 35% (for ADH2*1/*2, n = 17) and 44% (for ADH2*2/*2, n = 18) reported flushing. For subjects with ALDH2*1/*1 and at least one ADH2*2 allele, the genotype of ADH3 was not associated with self-reported flushing. PAC flushers with ALDH2*1/*1 (50%) were more likely to report nausea than those with ALDH2*1/*2 (8%). The probability of ALDH2*1/*1 given flushing reported was 0.29, while the probability of ALDH2*1/*1 given both flushing and nausea reported was 0.71. The results indicate that self-reported flushing is determined by both ALDH2 and ADH2 and that prediction of ALDH2 genotype on the basis of self-reported flushing and nausea can help identify subjects at increased risk for alcoholism.
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PMID:Self-reported flushing and genotypes of ALDH2, ADH2, and ADH3 among Taiwanese Han. 972 71

Pharmacokinetic models for ethanol metabolism have contributed to the understanding of ethanol clearance in human beings. However, these models fail to account for ethanol's toxic metabolite, acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde accumulation leads to signs and symptoms, such as cardiac arrhythmias, nausea, anxiety, and facial flushing. Nevertheless, it is difficult to determine the levels of acetaldehyde in the blood or other tissues because of artifactual formation and other technical issues. Therefore, we have constructed a promising physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model, which is an excellent match for existing ethanol and acetaldehyde concentration-time data. The model consists of five compartments that exchange material: stomach, gastrointestinal tract, liver, central fluid, and muscle. All compartments except the liver are modeled as stirred reactors. The liver is modeled as a tubular flow reactor. We derived average enzymatic rate laws for alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), determined kinetic parameters from the literature, and found best-fit parameters by minimizing the squared error between our profiles and the experimental data. The model's transient output correlates strongly with the experimentally observed results for healthy individuals and for those with reduced ALDH activity caused by a genetic deficiency of the primary acetaldehyde-metabolizing enzyme ALDH2. Furthermore, the model shows that the reverse reaction of acetaldehyde back into ethanol is essential and keeps acetaldehyde levels approximately 10-fold lower than if the reaction were irreversible.
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PMID:A physiologically based model for ethanol and acetaldehyde metabolism in human beings. 1592 32

Liver alcohol dehydrogenase oxidizes ethanol to acetaldehyde, which is further oxidized to acetate by aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 (ALDH2*1). Individuals who carry a low-activity ALDH2 (ALDH2*2) display high blood acetaldehyde levels after ethanol consumption, which leads to dysphoric effects, such as facial flushing, nausea, dizziness, and headache ("Asian alcohol phenotype"), which result in an aversion to alcohol and protection against alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Mimicking this phenotype may reduce alcohol consumption in alcoholics. RNA interference (RNAi) is a cell process in which a short interfering RNA (siRNA) of 21-25 bp guides the degradation of a complementary target mRNA. Thus, siRNAs may be useful in mimicking the Asian phenotype by inhibiting ALDH2 gene expression. We determined the inhibitory effect of three chemically synthesized siRNAs targeted against rat ALDH2 mRNA in human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293 cell lines) transfected with a plasmid carrying the rat ALDH2 cDNA. Two of the three siRNAs were active, yielding a 65-75% reduction of ALDH2 activity. Based on the most promising siRNA sequence, three short hairpin RNA (shRNA) genes driven by the human U6 RNA promoter were designed and cloned in a plasmid. After transfection of HEK-293 cells, one of the genes was shown to be active, yielding a 50% reduction of ALDH2 activity. This effect is consistent with a 50% reduction in ALDH2 mRNA, whereas neither beta-actin mRNA nor the interferon-inducible transmembrane protein-1 mRNA levels were affected. This study describes chemically synthesized siRNAs and an endogenously synthesized shRNA, which reduce ALDH2 activity and constitute tools that should be of value for further alcohol research.
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PMID:RNA interference against aldehyde dehydrogenase-2: development of tools for alcohol research. 1925 Nov 11

Alcohol drinking increases the risk for a number of cancers. Currently, the highest risk (Group 1) concerns oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colorectum, and female breast, as assessed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Alcohol and other beverage constituents, their metabolic effects, and alcohol-related unhealthy lifestyles have been suggested as etiological factors. The aim of the present survey is to evaluate the carcinogenic role of acetaldehyde in alcohol-related cancers, with special emphasis on the genetic-epidemiological evidence. Acetaldehyde, as a constituent of alcoholic beverages, and microbial and endogenous alcohol oxidation well explain why alcohol-related cancers primarily occur in the digestive tracts and other tissues with active alcohol and acetaldehyde metabolism. Genetic-epidemiological research has brought compelling evidence for the causality of acetaldehyde in alcohol-related cancers. Thus, IARC recently categorized alcohol-drinking-related acetaldehyde to Group 1 for head and neck and esophageal cancers. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg, since more recent epidemiological studies have also shown significant positive associations between the aldehyde dehydrogenase ALDH2 (rs671)*2 allele (encoding inactive enzyme causing high acetaldehyde elevations) and gastric, colorectal, lung, and hepatocellular cancers. However, a number of the current studies lack the appropriate matching or stratification of alcohol drinking in the case-control comparisons, which has led to erroneous interpretations of the data. Future studies should consider these aspects more thoroughly. The polymorphism phenotypes (flushing and nausea) may provide valuable tools for future successful health education in the prevention of alcohol-drinking-related cancers.
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PMID:Genetic-epidemiological evidence for the role of acetaldehyde in cancers related to alcohol drinking. 2542