Ru Band Lu

TL;DR: The genotypes of the ADH2, ADH3, and ALDH2 loci of alcoholic and nonalcoholic Chinese men living in Taiwan are determined using leukocyte DNA amplified by the PCR and allele-specific oligonucleotides, suggesting that genetic variation in both ADH and AL DH, by modulating the rate of metabolism of ethanol and acetaldehyde, influences drinking behavior and the risk of developing alcoholism.

TL;DR: It is suggested that protection afforded by the ADH2*2 allele may be independent of that afforded by ALDH2* 2, and that individuals carrying one or two copies of ADH 2 and a single copy of ALDH 2*2 had the lowest risk for alcoholism, as compared with the ADh2*1/*1 and ALDH1*1 genotype.

TL;DR: Astrocyte is identified as a novel target for VPA to induce neurotrophic and neuroprotective actions in rat midbrain and shows a potential new role of cellular interactions between DA neurons and astrocytes.

TL;DR: It is shown that two additional HDAC inhibitors, sodium butyrate (SB) and trichostatin A (TSA), mimic the survival-promoting and protective effects of VPA on DA neurons in neuron-glia cultures and indicate that HDAC inhibitor up-regulate GDNF and BDNF expression in astrocytes and protect DA neurons, at least in part, through HDAC inhibition.

TL;DR: An initial study of the nature of linkage disequilibrium and genetic variation, in population samples from different regions of the world, in a larger segment of the ADH cluster (including the three Class I ADH genes and ADH7), indicates that most ADH-alcoholism association studies have failed to consider many sites in theADH cluster that may harbor etiologically significant alleles and that the relevance of the various ADH sites will be population dependent.