New research revealed an amazing mechanism showing that byproducts of alcohol enter the brain to promote addictive memory. They show how acetate enters the brain’s learning system and directly alters proteins that regulate DNA function, affecting how some genes are expressed and ultimately how mice behave when stimulated by the environment to consume alcohol.
Now, a team led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has shown in mouse models how acetate – a byproduct of alcohol breakdown produced primarily in the liver – travels to the brain’s learning system and directly alters proteins that regulate DNA function. This affects how some genes are expressed and ultimately influences the behavior of mice when they are stimulated by the environment to consume alcohol.
Consuming alcohol leads to epigenetic changes in brain memory centers
