Additional evidence for a role of the immune system in alcohol problems comes from the implication of the gene ontologies negative regulation of cytokine biosynthetic process, detection of abiotic stimulus, and interferon gamma pathway, all with q ≤ 0.14. Despite some degree of functional overlap among the categories related to immune function – for example, interferons are a type of cytokine – there is no overlap in the genes driving “significance” across these top categories. This suggests that each represents a relatively independent implication of immune-related processes. Cytokines may be biomarkers of alcohol consumption/problems [52]: elevated levels of some cytokines have been observed in individuals with alcoholic liver disease [53], and patients with cirrhosis who are actively consuming alcohol have low levels of cytokines compared to abstinent patients with cirrhosis [54].
