This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Perhaps the most significant barrier in the treatment of alcohol abuse and alcoholism is the paucity of tools available for diagnosing and monitoring excessive alcohol consumption. For many reasons, (e.g., social stigma associated with alcohol abuse, and the potential legal/social ramifications of frank alcoholism), self-reported use, though informative, is known to be inconsistent. Indeed, there is a motivation for patients to deny drinking. This has led to the search for biochemical markers of alcohol abuse. Several biochemical markers of alcoholism have been proposed, but there are limitations to the accuracy and sensitivity of these assays. These biomarkers include: mean corpuscular volume, carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, gamma-glutamyl transferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and ethylglucuronide. The present study proposes to combine the power of a non-human primate model of alcohol self-administration with new, high-throughput proteomic techniques to identify additional diagnostic plasma protein biomarker signatures of excessive alcohol consumption. Blood samples from monkeys prior to and during ethanol self-adminstration have been sent and are currently being analyzed. These results will be combined with the recently completed sampling taken after one year of ethanol self-adminstration to determine the accuracy of this blood biomarkers thoughtout alcohol consumption.
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