People who drink do not always develop alcohol dependence. A group of scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University have made an open-ended that may explain why this is happening. Perhaps in the future, specialists will be able to identify risk groups and create new drugs for the treatment of alcohol dependence.
Scientists conducted research on roundworms. They studied the role of the SWI / SNF protein complex in the mechanism of addiction. Genetically, roundworms and humans are similar. Scientists managed to find out that genetic variations of this complex are closely related to alcoholism, both in worms and in humans.
The likelihood of addiction is increased by certain mutations in a number of genes. Moreover, each mutation makes its own small contribution. The discovery of genes that are responsible for the development of alcohol dependence in worms brings them closer to understanding how alcohol dependence works in humans, the researchers say. Since, in the modern world community, a very large number of people suffer from this disease.