Here's something you won't hear in the flood of uncritical media accounts that are destined to follow in the wake of this finding and its somewhat deceptively-worded press release:
It's not that Mexican Americans have some magic "alky" gene that makes them winos -- it's that Mexican Americans who happen to have a particular combination of gene variants are more prone to alcoholism, and oh by the way did we mention that we have yet to study this in any other race?
So please keep that in mind as you read the following.
Mexican Americans who carry the H6 haplotype of the CYP2E1 gene are more likely to get hooked and stay hooked on alcohol.
Previous research on individual gene variants ("alleles" for those of you who can process gene jargon) came up with conflicting evidence. The new research looks at haplotypes, or combinations of variants in DNA (that in this case happen to be within a single gene), instead of individual gene variants.
In this case, folks with the four gene variants that correspond to the H6 haplotype, exhibited issues with alcoholism including heavy drinking and "late-onset" drinking.
"The prevalence rate of heavy drinking among male Mexican Americans, is three times higher than that of non-Hispanic male populations," says Wan.
Wan also notes that "Although only five percent of Mexican alcoholics have the H6 haplotype, it is important to use the same approach to study other ethnic groups, particularly Asians, who have high frequency of both c2 and C alleles."
We all await the study of other ethnicities' haplotype frequency and tendency to become alcoholics with baited breath.
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