Gene editing is a strong candidate for treating binge drinking. In mice, heavy drinking changed the Arc gene in the brain’s emotion and memory center. Editing it with CRISPR-dCas9 cut anxiety and the risk of alcohol use disorder.
Summary: Alcohol abuse disorder is a major problem among adults. It is one of the preventable causes of poor health. Still, doctors who treat it know it is not easy to treat. Relapse rates are high. Binge drinking at a young age also seems to cause epigenetic changes (changes in how genes are switched on). These make people prone to anxiety and alcohol abuse disorders. So experts think gene therapy could be a good way to treat it.
Binge drinking is a major problem in the US. Studies suggest about one-sixth of all US adults binge drink. These people do not always have alcohol abuse disorder, and they are not living with alcoholism. But they drink too much from time to time.
Binge drinking means having 4-5 or more drinks at one time. It is linked to serious harm. For example, it causes car crashes, violence, memory and learning problems and more.
New studies suggest some people are prone to binge drinking. They are often well-educated people with good incomes. But they are used to drinking too much now and then. So they put themselves at needless risk. Binge drinking is quite different from alcoholism, since binge drinkers are sober most of the time.
Researchers have long tried to learn why some people keep binge drinking. It seems that binge drinking at a young age changes how genes are switched on. So a person becomes hard-wired to drink too much. It also means medicines have a hard time managing binge drinking.
Researchers have identified genes associated with binge drinking and tools to modify them
Of course, genes do not change easily. Modern studies show that heavy drinking causes epigenetic changes. In these changes, the genes stay intact. But lifestyle choices change how the genes are switched on. Once that happens, it keeps causing trouble for the rest of your life.
There may be many ways to undo epigenetic changes. Unlike genetic changes, they might be undone by changing your lifestyle. But some researchers think gene therapy could be the faster way.
Gene therapy needs two things. First, science must find the genes that binge drinking changed. Then it must find tools to edit genes. Science seems to have found both, at least in animal studies.
In a study in mice, researchers gave the mice too much alcohol for a long time. They found this led to specific epigenetic changes. For example, binge drinking mainly changed the so-called Arc gene. The changes in how this gene works happened in the brain’s emotion and memory center. These changes set the stage for anxiety and alcohol use disorder later in life.
So editing this gene may help cut anxiety and the risk of alcohol use disorder. The problem with epigenetic changes is that they last for the rest of life. They are hard to undo by changing your lifestyle. But gene editing may change them.
In the study, researchers used CRISPR-dCas9 to change genes. This tool is the gold standard for gene therapy today. They found it worked well to cut anxiety and other changes. That lowered the risk of alcohol abuse disorder.
These are still early days. But researchers think it is only a matter of time before gene therapy is widely available. These findings can surely help treat alcohol abuse disorder in adults. They could also help bring a permanent cure for addiction.
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