Increased risk of developing alcohol addiction linked to gene mutation

Researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) report that the CHRNA3 gene regulates alcohol sensitivity, providing experimental support for human genetic studies. They discovered that mutations in CHRNA3 lead to reduced sensitivity to alcohol’s effects and increased voluntary alcohol intake in preclinical models. This suggests that CHRNA3 gene variations could increase the risk of alcohol use disorders in humans and may lead to more personalised treatment strategies in the future.
The findings could pave the way for developing more effective prevention and treatment strategies for alcohol addiction by understanding the genetic predisposition.
Source: Raine, J., Kibat, C., Banerjee, T.D. et al., (2025) chrna3 Modulates alcohol response. The Journal of Neuroscience, 45 (43) e0304252025.