UC San Diego findings emphasize need to educate women about taking multivitamins.

Researchers from the UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, a research affiliate of UC San Diego School of Medicine, have found a link between multivitamin use and alcohol consumption before pregnancy, uncovering a need for education about the importance of vitamin supplementation, particularly among women who drink alcohol during their childbearing years. The study was published online this month in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Researchers examined data collected from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention’s multiple-state Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) of more than 100,000 women between 2004 and 2008. The women answered a series of questions about alcohol use before their pregnancies as well as multivitamin supplement use.  The study found women who reported consuming alcohol regularly or binge drinking were significantly less likely to take a multivitamin supplement compared with those who did not report alcohol consumption.

“It’s likely a woman may consume alcohol before she even realizes she’s pregnant, therefore, these findings are significant,” explained Lauren Bartell Weiss, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow at UC San Diego’s Center for the Promotion of Maternal Health and Infant Development and co-author of the study. “If a woman is drinking alcohol regularly and unintentionally becomes pregnant, not only does her unborn child have a greater risk of being affected by the alcohol, but other studies suggest that alcohol can also alter the metabolism of nutrients and interfere with the nutritional supply to the developing baby.”

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Gallo Center scientists identify new application for family of drugs.

Dorit Ron, UCSF

A study by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Franciscoidentified a potential new approach for reducing problem drinking: a new family of drugs with the ability to manipulate DNA structure without changing it.

The drugs, already approved for human use for other indications, reduced drinking and alcohol-seeking behavior in pre-clinical models — mice and rats trained to drink large quantities of alcohol.

The animals in the study, which was published today in the advance online edition of Translational Psychiatry, were trained to mimic so-called “problem drinkers,” not-yet-full-blown alcoholics, said senior author Dorit Ron, Ph.D., a Gallo Center investigator and a professor of neurology at UCSF.

“They consumed large quantities of alcohol and drank in binges, but were not yet physically dependent on alcohol,” she said. “In humans, these drugs could represent a promising new direction in preventing drinkers from going on to become fully addicted.”

The drugs, which inhibit enzymes called DNMT and HDAC, are currently being used to treat several types of cancer and show promise as medications for the treatment of mood disorders.

The study presents “a potential new mechanism to control excessive drinking,” said Ron.

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UCLA-led team’s ‘pill’ mimics action of human liver in fighting alcohol intoxication.

In a discovery that could derail the popular “Hangover” movie franchise, a team of researchers led by UCLA engineers has identified a method for speeding up the body’s reaction to the consumption of alcohol.

In a paper published online today (Feb. 17) in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Nanotechnology, Yunfeng Lu, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and his colleagues describe successfully placing two complementary enzymes in a tiny capsule to speed up the elimination of alcohol from the body. The enzyme combination within the capsule essentially processes alcohol the way the liver does.

Lu, the principal investigator, said the enzyme combination could be ingested as a pill, chemically altering alcohol in the digestive system, even as the liver does its work.

“The pill acts in a way extremely similar to the way your liver does,” Lu said. “With further research, this discovery could be used as a preventative measure or antidote for alcohol intoxication.”

Naturally occurring enzymes within cells often work in tandem to transform molecules or eliminate toxins. Lu’s group assembled multiple enzymes to mimic the natural process. An enzyme known as an alcohol oxidase, for example, can promote the oxidization of alcohol but also produces hydrogen peroxide, which is toxic. Another type of enzyme, a catalase, prompts the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. Placing the two enzymes next to each other can effectively remove alcohol.

The researchers placed the two enzymes in a polymer capsule measuring just tens of nanometers in diameter. The wall of the polymer capsule is only one nanometer thick – about 100,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair. The capsule protects the enzymes and allows them to freely enter an alcohol molecule. In this way, the nanocapsule mimics an organelle, a structure found in cells that spurs chemical reactions.

The researchers used a mouse model to test how well the enzyme package worked as an antidote after alcohol was consumed. They found that blood alcohol levels in mice that received the enzyme package fell more quickly than in mice that did not. Blood alcohol levels of the antidote test group were 15.8 percent lower than the control group after 45 minutes, 26.1 percent lower after 90 minutes and 34.7 percent lower after three hours.

In a test of how well the enzyme delivery system worked as a prophylactic when consumed at the same time as alcohol, the researchers found that blood alcohol levels in the mice that received the enzymes were 10.1 percent lower than in control-group mice after 45 minutes, 31.8 percent lower after 90 minutes and 36.8 percent lower after three hours.

“Considering the vast library of enzymes that are currently or potentially available,” the authors write, “novel classes of enzyme nanocomplexes could be built for a broad range of applications.”

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California College DUI Awareness Project to continue at UC Irvine.

The California College DUI Awareness Project, designed to raise awareness about the dangers of drunk driving and reward designated drivers, will continue for a fourth year at the University of California, Irvine, thanks to a $344,000 grant renewal from the California Office of Traffic Safety, via federal funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

UCI’s Health Education Center and its partner, RADD – the entertainment industry’s voice for road safety – will continue to expand the project. The goal is to combine environmental, marketing and educational strategies to reduce alcohol-related motor vehicle deaths and injuries among people 18 to 34 years old.

RADD’s Designated Driver Rewards Program recruits local bars and restaurants to provide incentives to designated drivers, such as free nonalcoholic beverages and appetizers. The program, which currently involves 16 college campuses across the state (with a goal of reaching 20 campuses), has been renewed through September 2013.

The participating campuses are responsible for promoting the RADD Designated Driver Rewards Program to students through outreach efforts and community events. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently lauded RADD’s work in a report showing that DUI deaths in California had declined from 950 in 2009 to a record low of 791 in 2010.

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UCLA expert offers tips for making good choices during the holidays.

By Dr. Karen Miotto

Dr, Karen Miotto is a professor of clinical psychiatry and director of the Alcoholism and Addiction Medicine Service in the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.

How do people decide how much food to eat, alcohol to drink or substances to use over the holidays?

These decisions are often made without conscious reflection. Cultural recipes tell people what, how much and when to enjoy these pleasures to achieve the desired result.

Cultural or societal recipes are acquired from multiple sources — family, friends, racial and ethnic groups, social settings and, of course, the media.

Cultural norms for holidays are relaxed, and excessive consumption is encouraged and justified by saying:

“I’ll have a drink; I don’t want to offend my host.”

“I’m entitled to celebrate; it’s the holidays.”

“The holidays are so hectic — I need a drink.”

“I need to cope with the holidays and family tension or loss.”

“I need a social lubricant to get through this party.”

Consumption patterns are strongly influenced by what is available and what is acceptable. The availability of food and drink is often excessive over the holidays, and contradictory information about what is acceptable is ubiquitous.

It’s worth reflecting on ways we can protect ourselves and those we care about from difficulty or even tragedy due to use of excessive alcohol or excess consumption over the holidays.

Start by anticipating the moments of holiday joy and fulfillment available to us all.

Focus on finding the meaning of the holidays for you — seeing someone special, having a meal, gathering with friends, attending a religious service, watching sports, taking a day off, seeing children playing.

Be realistic. If the holidays are a reminder of the loss of a close family member, friend or pet, consider how to care for yourself and honor your loss.

If you “hate the holidays,” identify other meaningful activities in advance.

Set holiday goals. Accountability is the key to successful goal setting. So tell someone about your goal, write it down or put it in your schedule.

Take a taxi to a party so you know you will not consider driving home if you drink. Negative goals — saying “I won’t drink or eat too much” — are also psychologically unappealing, which makes it hard to implement them. Reframe negative goals into positive action items. You may be surprised by the difference this makes!

Instead, change “I will drink or eat less” to “I will take a walk during the family gathering.”

Throughout the holidays, as people gather and share food and beverages, make choices in your best interest. Share a cultural recipe for moderation and other people will thank you!

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UCSF researchers find target for new alcohol abuse medications.

Dorit Ron, UC San Francisco

Decreasing the level of a key brain protein led to significantly less drinking and alcohol-seeking behavior in rats and mice that had been trained to drink, according to a study by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco.

The scientists identified the protein, known as H-Ras, as a promising target for development of new medications to treat alcohol abuse disorders in humans.

The study, which was published on Nov. 7 in the Journal of Neuroscience, was recommended as being of special significance in its field by the Faculty of 1,000, an online service that identifies great peer-reviewed biomedical research.

The researchers, led by Gallo investigator Dorit Ron, Ph.D., first demonstrated that alcohol intake significantly increased H-Ras activity in the animals’ nucleus accumbens, a brain region that in both rodents and humans is part of the reward system that affects craving for alcohol and other addictive substances.

They then showed that suppressing H-Ras levels in the nucleus accumbens with a targeted virus reduced alcohol consumption among mice that had been trained to seek out and drink alcohol in an animal model of binge drinking.

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UCLA research also finds that “art messaging” can have positive effect.

Adey Nyamathi, UCLA

A new study led by researchers from the UCLA School of Nursing has found that nursing intervention can significantly decrease substance abuse among homeless youth. Published in the current issue of the American Journal on Addictions, the research also revealed that “art messaging” can have a positive effect on drug and alcohol abuse and other risky behaviors among this population.

It is estimated that at least 1.2 million adolescents are homeless in the United States. These youths abuse substances with far greater frequency than do their non-homeless counterparts, and once under the influence, they are more likely to participate in delinquency and a host of assorted destructive behaviors.

One such behavior, often called “survival sex” because youths exchange sex for necessities like food or a place to stay, is accompanied by a lower rate of condom use, which can lead to unwanted pregnancies, HIV infection, hepatitis and other sexually transmitted diseases.

“Homeless youth often justify their use of drugs because of the need to stay awake at night to avoid getting mugged, because they are ‘self-medicating’ to quell the voices in their head, or because of the need to cope with the stress of life,” said Adey Nyamathi, lead investigator on the study and associate dean for international research and scholarly activities at the UCLA School of Nursing. “But the sad truth is that once substance abuse use is entrenched, drugs begin to dominate all aspects of homeless youths’ lives. We must put programs in place that break this vicious cycle.”

The study involved 154 drug-using homeless youths in Santa Monica, many of whom had experienced a multitude of life crises, including a history of foster care, a low level of education and a support system of individuals who themselves use drugs and/or alcohol.

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UC Berkeley’s Lee Ann Kaskutas awarded by the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

Lee Ann Kaskutas and Michael Cunningham

On Tuesday (Aug. 21), the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP) awarded the 2012 Director’s Award for Innovative and Effective Approaches to Research to Lee Ann Kaskutas, adjunct associate professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and senior scientist and director of training at the Alcohol Research Group at the Public Health Institute. The ADP Director’s Awards, presented at ADP’s statewide training conference, recognize valuable contributions by individuals and organizations to the substance abuse prevention, treatment, research and recovery fields.

“Substance abuse prevention, treatment and recovery techniques are more effective because of Lee Ann’s research in the field,” said ADP acting Director Michael Cunningham.

With an overarching interest in the social model of recovery, Kaskutas conducted clinical trials that compared the costs and outcomes of clinical and social model treatment programs, and currently is studying the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous over time. She developed a computer-based assessment and intervention for prenatal clinics to help pregnant women understand how much they are drinking, and also developed a manual-guided, 12-step facilitation intervention that helps prepare clients for transition into the culture of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Kaskutas has received numerous awards for her research and contributions to the field of addiction, including the “Distinguished Academic Partner Award” from UC Berkeley School of Public Health, the R. Brinkley Smithers “Distinguished Scientist Award” from American Society of Addiction Medicine and the “Young Investigator Award” from Research Society on Alcoholism.

Study results suggest there could be a “pre-existing vulnerability.”

Susan Tapert

Heavy drinking is known to affect an adolescent’s developing brain, but certain patterns of brain activity may also help predict which teens are at risk of becoming problem drinkers, according to a study by researchers in the UC San Diego School of Medicine and VA San Diego Healthcare System. Their results will be published in the September issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, online today (Aug. 8).

This study focused on 12- to 16-year-olds whose brains were scanned using special functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) prior to the onset of drinking, and then again three years later. About half of this group transitioned into heavy drinking over the three-year period. However, when imaged before they began drinking, this cohort already showed less fMRI response in regions of the brain previously linked to heavy drinking.

“Interestingly, this study showed that teens who initially showed less activation in certain brain areas were at greater risk for becoming heavy drinkers over the next three years,” said principal investigator Susan Tapert, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine and VA San Diego Healthcare System.

Over time, adolescents who initiated heavy drinking exhibited less efficient processing of information.

“That’s the opposite of what you’d expect, because their brains should be getting more efficient as they get older,” said lead researcher Lindsay M. Squeglia, Ph.D.,  of UC San Diego’s Department of Psychiatry.

Once this group began drinking heavily — defined by episodes of consuming four or more drinks on an occasion for females, and five or more drinks for males — their brains already started showing the patterns previously seen in heavy drinkers: more activity in certain areas of the brain as they tried to perform a memory test. These brain areas included the parietal lobe (which helps process spatial information) and frontal lobe (the portion of the brain involved in, among other things, short-term memory tasks, planning and organization).

“At the point these teens began drinking heavily, the fMRI data revealed greater parietal and frontal activity during a spatial working memory task in heavy drinkers versus light drinkers, despite equivalent performance on the tasks and after considering their brain activation patterns before drinking started,” said Squeglia.

The study’s findings add to evidence that heavy episodic drinking during adolescence may be followed by subtle alterations in brain functioning. But the research also points to neural response patterns that could indicate a risk factor for future substance use.

“Our results suggest there could be a pre-existing vulnerability, and could provide clues to the biological origins of problem drinking,” said Squeglia.

Additional contributors to the study include Reagan R. Wetherill, Ph.D., UC San Diego; and Carmen Pulido, Ph.D., Joanna Jacobus, Ph.D.,  and Gregory G. Brown, Ph.D., UC San Diego and VA San Diego Healthcare.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health (#F31 AA18940, R21 AA019748 and R01 AA13419).

U.S. Army-funded program aims to speed development of new medications to treat alcohol, substance abuse.

John De Luca

The UC San Francisco-affiliated Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center has been selected to administer and manage a U.S. Army-funded research program intended to accelerate the discovery and development of new medications to treat alcohol and substance abuse in the context of post-traumatic stress and combat injury.

The new program, known as the Institute for Molecular Neuroscience (IMN), will rely on the expertise of a team of national experts who are unaffiliated with grant applicants to conduct an independent, peer-review process.

The first round of pilot research grants awarded by the IMN was announced today (July 11).

“The IMN Program holds great promise for combating national security health issues,” said John A. De Luca, Ph.D., chairman of the board of the Gallo Center and senior adviser to University of California President Mark Yudof. “It was created through Congressional appropriations to the Department of Defense in recognition of the increasing problem of alcohol and substance abuse facing our military personnel and veterans.” In many cases, he added, “substance abuse is related to post-traumatic stress or other combat related injuries, which can significantly impair patient medical treatment.”

The Gallo Center is a nationally recognized center of excellence for research in the neurobiology of addiction. “IMN,” according to William R. Sawyers, chief administrative officer of the IMN and the Gallo Center, “is a program of national importance, and we hope it serves as a model for future Department of Defense research efforts.”

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UC Merced researcher gives fruit flies alcohol and studies how their brains change.

Fred Wolf, UC Merced

UC Merced professor Fred Wolf‘s research brings new meaning to the term barfly.

In an effort to better understand the neurological effects of alcohol abuse, Wolf gives fruit flies alcohol and studies how their brains change.

“Alcohol taps into some of the most primitive circuitry of the brain, giving us a means to study how these circuits work,” Wolf said.

Alcoholism remains a major public health problem. For example, hospitalizations for alcohol and drug overdoses increased dramatically among 18- to 24-year-olds between 1999 and 2008, according to a recent study by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health.

If scientists such as Wolf can better understand how drug dependency works, they can better develop cures and treatments.

“The level of complexity in the human brain is astounding,” Wolf said. “Quite honestly, the complexity of the fruit fly brain is quite astounding too.”

Like humans, fruit flies find alcohol rewarding. Flies also develop alcohol tolerance, allowing them, like us, to drink more.

In a search for genes connected with alcohol tolerance, Wolf and colleagues discovered that one of them is found exclusively in glial cells. He’s further exploring the role of glia in alcohol tolerance with the support of a $932,619 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

In one project, Wolf is looking at glial cells, which make up 90 percent of the cells in a brain. Most research has focused on neurons — the remaining 10 percent of cells — because they process and transmit information. Researchers used to believe glial cells only supported neurons. However, studies are showing they’re part of the communication process that occurs in a brain, Wolf said.

Wolf is investigating how alcohol affects communication between neurons and glial cells, and the role of glia in the complex alterations in brain function that accompany the development of alcohol tolerance.

Wolf joined UC Merced this year after working as a researcher at UC San Francisco’s Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center. He was drawn to UC Merced by the opportunity to develop its academic and research offerings.

“I like the challenge of starting something new,” he said.

UCSF research examines link between alcohol consumption and atrial fibrillation.

The term “holiday heart syndrome” was coined in a 1978 study to describe patients with atrial fibrillation who experienced a common and potentially dangerous form of heart palpitation after excessive drinking, which can be common during the winter holiday season. The symptoms usually went away when the revelers stopped drinking. Now, research from UC San Francisco builds on that finding, establishing a stronger causal link between alcohol consumption and serious palpitations in patients with atrial fibrillation, the most common form of arrhythmia.

In a paper scheduled to be published August 1 in the American Journal of Cardiology, the UCSF researchers report that people with atrial fibrillation had almost a four and a half times greater chance of having an episode if they were consuming alcohol than if they were not.

“One of the remaining big unknowns is why or how this happens,” said senior author Gregory Marcus, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the UCSF Division of Cardiology. “In a previous publication, we suggested that there was an effect on the electrical activity of the atrium that leads to these arrhythmias but we do need additional studies to prove that.”

Gregory Marcus, UC San Francisco

Alcohol and heart palpitations

In the study, conducted from September 2004 to March 2011, UCSF researchers interviewed 223 patients with documented cardiac arrhythmia, a term that encompasses both atrial fibrillation and supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), or rapid heart rate originating above the ventricles. Researchers asked patients, “Does alcohol trigger your heart palpitations?” Participants ranked their symptoms on a scale from one to five (i.e. never, rarely, sometimes, frequently, and always).

“We defined ‘yes’ as frequently or always versus the rest of the responses,” Marcus said, “and found that, after adjusting for potential confounders, atrial fibrillation patients had statistically significant greater odds of reporting that alcohol would trigger their symptoms.” Of those patients interviewed, 133 reported intermittent or paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, or irregular heart palpitations, when drinking, and 90 had SVT, without any atrial fibrillation. After adjusting for variables, the paroxysmal atrial fibrillation group had a 4.42 greater chance of reporting alcohol consumption as an arrhythmia trigger, compared to the SVT group. Patients’ claims of atrial fibrillation were verified by surface electrocardiograms and invasive cardiac studies.

The mean age of the study participants was 59 years. Eighty percent were Caucasian; 11 percent were Asian; 5 percent Latino, and 4 percent declined to state their ethnicity in the atrial fibrillation group. All were referred to and studied at UCSF.

“We didn’t find any clear associations between age and race as a trigger, but we probably had insufficient number of people in the study,” Marcus said.

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