title: Functional variation in promoter region of monoamine oxidase A and subtypes of alcoholism: haplotype analysis.
abstract: Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is a mitochondrial enzyme involved in the degradation of certain neurotransmitter amines. MAO-A, due to its function in central nervous system, has been one of the important candidate genes involved in the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the MAO-A gene has been identified. This variation affects the transcriptional efficiency of the gene. To determine the role of this MAO-A functional polymorphism in the development of subtypes of alcoholism, a sample of alcoholics and normal controls were screened with this marker. The allele frequency differences between total alcoholics, Types I and II alcoholics, and normal controls was not significant. Comparison of male alcoholics to male normal controls for the frequencies of two-loci and three-loci haplotypes was statistically significant. After Bonferroni's correction for multiple tests none of the results remained significant at P < 0.05. Our results indicate that MAO-A may play a role in the development of alcoholism but the gene effect is very small.
authors.affiliation: Birth Defects Center, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Louisville Health Sciences Center, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. parsian@louisville.edu
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parsian
authors.forename: C Robert
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Cloninger
authors.forename: Rashmi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Zhen Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008995:Monoamine Oxidase / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D008995:Monoamine Oxidase