Chunk #17 — 3. Pharmacogenetic Studies of Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder in Individuals of Diverse Ancestries — 3.1 Individuals of European Ancestry
Of importance, additional studies have been conducted in attempts to identify novel SNPs that predict response to medications in development for the treatment of AUD. Kranzler et al. have recently examined several SNPs of the Glutamate Receptor, Ionotropic, Kainate 1 (GRIK1) gene as predictors of response to treatment with topiramate.41 While they found that topiramate, compared to placebo, was able to significantly reduce heavy drinking days and increased days abstinent in the entire sample (n=138), heavy drinking days in European Americans who participated in this study (n=122) were significantly lower, compared to placebo, in rs2832407 C-allele homozygotes. Ray et al. also examined several SNPs of the GRIK1 gene as predictors of topiramate-induced side effects in a sample of individuals primarily of European ancestry.42 They found that the rs2832407 SNP was related to topiramate-induced side effects and the topiramate serum concentration. Specifically, this SNP in GRIK1, appears to moderate the effect of topiramate treatment on drinking reduction,41 such that C/C homozygotes receiving topiramate significantly reduced their frequency of heavy drinking days relative to C/C homozygotes who received placebo. This effect, however,
