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February 9, 2019 – 16:17 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net – A recent study suggested that binge drinking in adolescence is badociated with an increased risk of psychological problems and alcoholism later in life. According to the researchers, some of these lasting changes result from epigenetic changes that alter the expression of a protein essential to the formation and maintenance of neural connections in the amygdala – the part of the brain involved in the emotions, fear and anxiety, said LatestLY. .
Their findings, based on the badysis of postmortem human brain tissue, are published in the journal Translational Psychiatry. Epigenetics refers to chemical modifications of DNA, RNA or specific proteins badociated with chromosomes, which alter the activity of genes without modifying the genes themselves. Epigenetic changes are involved in the normal development of the brain, but they can be influenced by environmental or even social factors, such as alcohol and stress. These types of epigenetic alterations have been badociated with behavioral changes and illnesses. Alcohol boosts potato production? Farmers in Uttar Pradesh are trying a new technique to increase production, see photos.
The researchers studied post-mortem tonsillar tissue. The amygdala is the part of the brain involved in emotional regulation. The samples came from the brain of 11 people who started drinking a lot before the age of 21 or who started drinking early. 11 people who started drinking seriously after the age of 21, called late drinkers; and 22 people with no history of drinking disorder.
The average age of death for those sampled was 58 years for those with no alcohol-related disorder; 55 years for early drinkers; and 59 in late drinkers. Amygdalae early drinkers had about 30% more of a molecule called BDNF-AS, a large non-coding RNA.
Usually, RNA is involved in the production of proteins from DNA, but not this one. BDNF-AS regulates a gene that produces a protein called BDNF. This protein is a growth factor and is crucial for normal formation and maintenance of synapses throughout the brain. When there is more BDNF-AS, there is less BDNF. The brain tissue of early drinkers contained 30-40% less BDNF than the brain tissue of people with no history of alcohol use disorder.
Subhash Pandey and his colleagues, the lead author of the study, found that the increase in BDNF in late drinkers or people with no alcohol-related disorder was caused by a decrease in methylation of the drug. BDNF-AS. Methylation is a type of epigenetic change in which a molecule containing a methyl group is added to another molecule and causes a change in gene expression. It is thought that the decrease in methylation of BDNF-AS is due to early alcohol consumption and appears to be a lasting change.
"The epigenetic changes we have observed in the amygdala of early drinkers can alter the normal functioning of the amygdala, which helps regulate our emotions and can make individuals more vulnerable to anxiety, as we have shown in other studies, or the development and maintenance of alcohol use disorder later in life, "Pandey said.
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