Biomarkers of alcohol misuse: recent advances and future prospects

Abstract

Alcohol abuse and dependence are highly prevalent in many cultures and contribute considerably to the global burden of health and social issues. The current inability to accurately characterise long-term drinking behaviours is a major obstacle to alcoholism diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop objective diagnostic tools to discern subjects with excessive alcohol use and alcoholism or to confirm abstinence. Research over past years has revealed several biochemical compounds with considerable potential for accurate reflection of alcohol intake. This review will address the issue of alcohol biomarker definition, the types of molecules used as so-called traditional biomarkers, and the compounds that can serve as novel biomarker candidates or components of biomarker panels.

Monitoring of direct alcohol markers in alcohol use disorder patients during withdrawal treatment and successive rehabilitation

“…As indirect biomarkers such as carbohydrate‐deficient transferrin (CDT) and γ‐glutamyltransferase (GGT) show a lower specificity and sensitivity for the detection of alcohol abuse, current research mainly focuses on the detection of alcohol abuse by the means of direct alcohol markers such as ethyl glucuronide (EtG), ethyl sulfate (EtS), and phosphatidylethanol (PEth). In contrast to indirect alcohol markers, direct alcohol biomarkers incorporate the ethanol molecule …”

“…In contrast to indirect alcohol markers, direct alcohol biomarkers incorporate the ethanol molecule. 2,3 PEth has been introduced to assess alcohol consumption in patients with AUD due to its long window of detection. 4 In contrast to PEth in blood, direct alcohol marker measurements in hair or urine are more likely to be the subject of sample adulteration.…”

Evidence of seasonal variation of ethyl glucuronide in hair: Modeling a seven‐year data series

“…The trustworthy assessment of harmful drinking represents a major commitment for forensic and clinical toxicologists and requires both a careful evaluation of suggestive medical evidence and the execution of laboratory analysis aimed at the detection of excessive alcohol consumption biomarkers . The latter include indirect biomarkers and direct alcohol metabolites, with a wide range of reliability, depending on the proportion of correct classification of the investigated individuals among harmful drinkers, social drinkers, and teetotallers …”

“…The trustworthy assessment of harmful drinking represents a major commitment for forensic and clinical toxicologists and requires both a careful evaluation of suggestive medical evidence and the execution of laboratory analysis aimed at the detection of excessive alcohol consumption biomarkers. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The latter include indirect biomarkers and direct alcohol metabolites, with a wide range of reliability, depending on the proportion of correct classification of the investigated individuals among harmful drinkers, social drinkers, and teetotallers. 3,[12][13][14][15][16] In recent years, the determination of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in the keratinous matrices has gained increasing appreciation, since it achieves the highest combination of sensitivity and specificity in the discrimination among alcohol consumers with different drinking habits.…”

The comparative analysis of the methods for the determination of phosphatidylethanol in blood as a biological marker of alcohol abuse

“…Для объективной оценки и мониторинга количества и частоты потребляемого человеком алкоголя используют лабораторные маркеры употребления алкоголя, которые можно разделить на две группы -прямые и непрямые биомаркеры. К непрямым биомаркерам относятся аспартатаминотрансфераза (AСТ), аланинаминотрансфераза (AЛТ), γ-глутамилтрансфераза (ГГТ), карбогидратдефицитный трансферрин (CDT) и средний корпускулярный объем эритроцитов (MCV) [4][5][6]. Эти биомаркеры образуются в результате воздействия этанола на организм человека, но их содержание может повышаться в результате развития различных патологических процессов, часто не связанных со злоупотреблением алкоголем.…”