CONTENTS

A. NIAAA Budget

FY 2006 Appropriation   Congress passed the legislation for the FY 2006 appropriation on December 22, 2005 and it was signed by President Bush on December 30. The FY 2006 NIAAA appropriation of $435.9 million is a 0.5 percent decrease from the FY 2005 level of $438.3 million, after absorbing a 1% across-the-board recision. Included in the appropriation is $26.9 million for HIV/AIDS research.

FY 2007 President's Request   The FY 2007 President's request for NIH has not yet been released.

A summary of the FY 2006 appropriation (in thousands) follows:

B. Director's Activities

Addiction and Chemical Intolerance Conference  On September 19, Dr. Li was a featured speaker at a conference sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) on Addiction and Chemical Intolerance. Dr. Li's talk was entitled "Alcohol Tolerance and Intolerance." The two-day conference brought together government and university scientists to address the observation that drug addiction and chemical intolerance appear to share common underlying processes. Conference goals included developing a research agenda in the area and fostering interagency research collaborations between NIEHS, NIAAA, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Mayo Clinic Grand Rounds  Dr. Li gave a talk on September 27 at grand rounds for the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. The talk was entitled "Alcoholism: Understanding the Development Trajectory and Recovery."

Healthy People 2020 Workshop, Shanghai  Dr. Li gave a keynote address on October 12 at a workshop in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, on Healthy People 2020-Alcohol, Obesity, and Diabetes. Dr. Zhaoxia Ren was a co-organizer of the workshop, which also featured talks by a number of NIAAA intramural and extramural scientists and representatives from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; and NIH's Division of Nutrition Research Coordination. The workshop was part of an ongoing collaborative effort between NIAAA and the Institute of Nutritional Science (INS), Chinese Academy of Sciences. NIAAA and INS have signed a letter of intent to increase cooperation in the fields of biomedical and behavioral sciences research; INS recently established an Alcohol Research Center.

American Society of Addiction Medicine  The American Society of Addiction Medicine held its fifth biennial course on the State of the Art in Addiction Medicine on October 27-29 in Washington, DC. On October 28, Dr. Li gave a keynote address, "Alcohol, Smoking and Obesity: Co-occurrence and Potential Mechanisms."

Preventing Underage Alcohol Use: A National Meeting of the States  On October 31-November 1, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD) convened a meeting in Washington, DC, of state representatives from around the country to address underage alcohol use. Dr. Li provided a scientific overview of the problem and the need for viewing it from a developmental perspective. He also unveiled a new issue of Alcohol Research & Health on "Alcohol and Development in Youth: A Multidisciplinary Perspective." Drs. Mark Goldman, Vivian Faden, and Patricia Powell are NIAAA's representatives to the ICCPUD task force. At the meeting, Dr. Ralph Hingson gave an overview of effective strategies for curbing youth drinking and Drs. Mark Goldman and Faye Calhoun participated in panel discussions at the meeting. Several members of the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free were key members of their State teams at the meeting. On the second day of the meeting, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona announced a forthcoming Call to Action on underage drinking. Both he and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt praised the Leadership members for their continuing efforts on behalf of this issue.

HapMap and the Neurogenetics of Alcoholism  NIAAA sponsored a satellite workshop on HapMap and the Neurogenetics of Alcoholism on November 11 as part of the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, DC. Dr. Li gave opening remarks for the workshop on "Genetics of Alcohol-Use Disorders." Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, was a featured speaker. Dr. Zhaoxia Ren organized the workshop.

C. NIAAA Staff

Extramural Staff

Peter Delany, Ph.D.  Dr. Peter Delany has joined the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research as a health scientist administrator responsible for the development and management of NIAAA's program in health services research. Dr. Delany comes to NIAAA from the Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, where he was a senior program management officer. Dr. Delany is a Captain in the Commissioned Corps, U.S. Public Health Service. Among his numerous awards, in 2004 he received the PHS Outstanding Service Medal.

Katrina Foster, Ph.D.  Dr. Katrina Foster has joined the Extramural Project Review Branch in the Office of Extramural Activities. Dr. Foster has a Ph.D. in the psychobiology of addictions from Purdue University. She did post-doctoral training at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she studied the effects of medications (acamprosate and mecamylamine) on alcohol effects and alcohol self-administration.

John Hough, Ph.D.  Dr. John Hough has left NIAAA to take a position at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Hough was a health scientist administrator specializing in health services research; at NCHS, he will be working in the Classifications and Public Health Data Standards Branch.

Frank Shevock  Frank Shevock retired in January after 33 years of government service, 17 of them with NIAAA. Beginning in 1989, he worked for the then Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration, handling personnel matters for NIAAA. Mr. Shevock remained with NIAAA when it moved to NIH in 1993, serving as personnel officer. In 2002, with the centralization of human resources services at NIH, he became a program advisor with responsibility for NIAAA.

Patrick Sullivan  Patrick Sullivan has joined NIAAA's Contracts Management Branch and will be providing support and leadership for the Branch while Matthew Packard, recently appointed Branch Chief, is on active duty with the Army National Guard. These reassignments come in the wake of the reorganization and consolidation of NIH's contract offices, effective October 31. With the reorganization, the NIAAA Contracts Management Branch officially became part of the NIDDK Office of Acquisitions. Also as part of this transition, Mr. Edward Kostolansky left the NIAAA contracts office to become Branch Chief at the NIDDK Research and Development Contracts Management Branch.

Susan E. Maier, Ph.D.  Dr. Susan E. Maier has joined the NIAAA Office of Scientific Affairs (OSA). Dr. Maier comes to NIAAA from the College of Medicine at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX, where she held an adjunct faculty appointment in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics. She was also a research development officer within the Office of Research and Graduate Studies for the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center. Dr. Maier's research interests are largely in the area of the adverse effects of prenatal and neonatal alcohol exposure on brain development; her recent research has included exploration of the effects of embryonic alcohol exposure on changes in early gene expression patterns and on oocyte mitochondrial DNA. Dr. Maier will participate in a variety of planning activities within OSA.

Peggy Murray, M.S.W.  Peggy Murray, chief of the Health Sciences Education Branch, was admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree in social work at Catholic University in March.

Peter Silverman, Ph.D.  Dr. Peter Silverman has assumed the post of Technology Development Coordinator in the Office of the Director, NIAAA. For the past 3 years, he has been a program officer in NIAAA's Division of Neuroscience and Behavior.

Van Van, B.S.  Van Van, in NIAAA's Health Sciences Education Branch, received a B.S. degree in computer information technology from the University of Maryland in December.

Ellen Witt, Ph.D.  On December 3, Dr. Ellen Witt received the American Psychological Association (APA) Meritorious Research Service Commendation. This commendation was presented by the APA Board of Scientific Affairs to recognize outstanding contributions to psychological science through service within the federal government in program development and research facilitation. She was honored for fostering the development of a number of critical research areas in alcohol research and for her constant emphasis on the importance of both basic and applied research in psychological science at NIAAA.

Intramural Staff

Andrew Holmes, Ph.D.  Dr. Andrew Holmes has received the 2005 Young Investigator Award from the International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society. The award recognizes the contributions of exceptional young scientists to the field of behavioral and neural genetics.

D. Research Priority Emphasis and Core Support Teams

Mechanisms of Behavior Change  The Mechanisms of Behavior Change Team held two 2-day meetings in November 2005, bringing together a small number of scholars from across the behavioral and neurocognitive sciences. These meetings helped to clarify some of the future directions that the alcohol treatment and prevention fields might take. A plan based on input from the two meetings was presented to the NIAAA Extramural Advisory Board on January 31 and February 1.

Underage Drinking  On November 17-18, the Team on Underage Drinking Research met with its committee of outside advisors to review the reports developed by three working groups (focusing on the age groups under 10, 10-15, and 16-20). Based on the reports and the discussion, the committee identified a list of developmental research themes that that will serve as guidance for future research initiatives. The next step for the committee is to condense the working group reports into an overarching review of the existing science and high priority research areas.

Dr. Vivian Faden spoke about underage drinking as a developmental phenomenon at a symposium on research September 30 at the annual meeting of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. The 3-day meeting took place in Washington, DC.

Centers and Training Team  On November 4-6, the Centers and Training Team conducted a meeting of the NIAAA institutional training programs at the Indiana Alcohol Research Center in Indianapolis. The theme of this year's meeting was "Pathways to Independence: Developing the Next Generation of Alcohol Researchers." The title refers to a comprehensive plan to advance multidisciplinary training and long-term support so that new investigators may more rapidly become autonomous alcohol researchers. Twenty-seven T32 directors or their representatives met with sixteen NIAAA staff, including Dr. Li, to discuss the implementation of these plans as well as strategies for maintaining our commitment to training programs and trainees despite fiscal restrictions. Trainees presented their latest results and heard from recent graduates of training programs who have gone on to become new principal investigators. The Centers and Training Team will continue to encourage transdisciplinary training among our institutional training programs, expand individual NRSA traineeships and fellowships, and develop new mentored and mentoring career development awards in order to support new investigators. Dr. Tom Gentry was the lead for the Team in organizing this event; Dr. Janice Froehlich was a key organizer at Indiana.

E. NIAAA Research Programs

NIAAA Strategic Plan  A new five-year Strategic Plan for NIAAA continues to be developed under the direction of Dr. Ken Warren in the Office of Scientific Affairs. The new plan will replace the 2001-2005 Strategic Plan now on the NIAAA website. An initial draft of the new plan, completed in the fall, is being substantially revised based on feedback from an internal NIAAA review. Completion of a review version of the draft is anticipated shortly. After this review and staff discussion at NIAAA's staff retreat in March 2006, the draft will be sent to Advisory Council members for initial comment, followed by an open comment period on the NIAAA website. The final presentation and action will occur at the June 8, 2006 Council meeting.

NIAAA Human Capital Strategic Plan  A new human capital strategic plan for NIAAA defines how the institute will ensure the recruitment, development, and retention of a workforce that can further its mission of research and dissemination of research findings. The plan, developed by Dr. Howard Moss and Robin Kawazoe, identifies key workforce issues facing NIAAA: an aging scientific and administrative workforce, turnover among senior staff and the accompanying loss of institutional memory, and the need for training of employees in technological and administrative skills needed for future research efforts. The plan identifies the steps to be taken, beginning in FY2006, to evaluate and respond to NIAAA's human capital needs. These strategies include developing competency models that contain the general/administrative and technical competencies required at various proficiency levels; mentoring as a way to manage institutional knowledge and encourage succession planning; and a program of training and development, both scientific and administrative. The plan also includes strategies for talent recruitment and selection.

Extramural Programs

As always, staff participated actively in organizing and speaking at national and international meetings and conferences:

Role of Betaine in the Treatment of Alcohol Liver Disease  NIAAA, NIH's Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine co-sponsored a meeting on the role of the dietary supplement betaine in the treatment of alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver disease on October 3 in Bethesda. Drs. Vishnu Purohit, Denise Russo, and Ricardo Brown organized the symposium; NIAAA's Dr. Bin Gao and Dr. Christine Swanson (ODS) chaired the event. Dr. Sam Zakhari delivered opening remarks.

International Addiction Research Meetings  Dr. Mark Willenbring made a number of scientific presentations in recent months, including three in Europe. In September, he made a presentation at the opening ceremony of the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism 2005 Conference, which took place in Canterbury, UK. His talk was entitled "New Understanding of Alcohol Use Disorders: Development, Treatment, and Service Delivery." Also in September he made a keynote presentation focused on the NIAAA clinician's guide at a meeting of the International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol Problems, which took place in Muenster, Germany. In November, he was a member of a panel presenting the current status of alcohol research projects and planning a joint addiction research program between the United States and Germany at a meeting of the German Addiction Research Network in Mannheim. His talks in this country included a presentation on "Future Directions in Health Services Research" at the Addiction Health Services Research Conference, held in Santa Monica, CA, October 24-24, and sponsored by the University of California, Los Angeles, and RAND.

American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases  Drs. Sam Zakhari of NIAAA and Craig McClain of the University of Louisville, KY, organized an inaugural symposium for the newly formed "NIH Corner" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD). Participants in the symposium included Drs. Zakhari and Diane Lucas with over 600 scientists attending. The AASLD meeting took place in San Francisco November 11-15.

Also at the AASLD meeting, an overview of information on research opportunities in alcohol and liver disease, prepared by Dr. Sam Zakhari, was reproduced in print and CD form and distributed to over 700 attendees.

Pan American Conference on Alcohol Policy  Dr. Ralph Hingson made a presentation at the 1st Pan American Conference on Alcohol Public Policies, held in Brasilia November 28-30. Participants from 20 countries participated in discussions at the meeting, which was sponsored by the Pan American Health Organization and the government of Brazil. Alcohol is the leading risk factor for death and illness in the Americas. The goal of the meeting was to assess alcohol related problems in the region and identify effective policy strategies. Dr. Hingson's presentation was entitled "Legal and Community Interventions to Reduce Alcohol Impaired Driving."

American Public Health Association  Dr. Page Chiapella joined representatives from NIDA, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the National Cancer Institute in presenting a symposium on "What Do Alcohol, Tobacco, Other Drugs, Physical Inactivity, and Mental Health Disorders Have in Common?" at the American Public Health Association annual meeting in Philadelphia, December 10-14. Dr. Chiapella also spoke at the "Federal Priorities Breakfast" at the meeting.

Society for Social Work and Research  At the annual conference of the Society for Social Work and Research, Peggy Murray organized and chaired a session on research mentoring during an NIH plenary session on improving the rigor of social work research. Successful grantees shared their experiences in postdoctoral and training grant awards. The conference took place in San Antonio, TX, January 12-15.

Summit on Health Information Management  Dr. Robert Freeman was an invited participant at a "National Summit on Defining a Strategy for Behavioral Health Information Management and Its Role Within the Nationwide Health Information Infrastructure" co-hosted by SAMHSA and the Software and Technology Vendors' Association, a national trade association whose members provide software to support management and clinical operations for mental health and substance abuse agencies. The meeting took place in Washington, DC, September 29-30.

Collaborative Research Efforts

International

Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)  Dr. Li and NIAAA staff have met twice with representatives of France's Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) to discuss common interests in alcohol research. A followup meeting is likely to be scheduled in spring or summer of 2006.

Kurihama Alcoholism Center  NIAAA has renewed a past collaborative relationship with the Kurihama Alcoholism Center in Japan. NIAAA hosted a meeting with officials from Kurihama on November 14 at which a letter of intent was signed to outline areas of collaboration: psychiatric genetics, epidemiology, gene/environment interactions, alcoholic liver disease, treatment, and acute pancreatitis.

Alcohol and Injury  Peggy Murray gave a plenary presentation at the International Conference on Alcohol and Injuries: New Knowledge from Emergency Room Studies, which took place in Berkeley, CA, October 3-6. The talk was on NIAAA's Academic Emergency Medicine Alcohol Screening and Intervention Collaboration. Invited participants from 15 countries attended the conference, which was cosponsored by NIAAA, the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

National

American Society for Gene Therapy  Drs. Sam Zakhari and Tom Gentry met with the president of the American Society for Gene Therapy, Dr. Mark A. Kay, and president-elect Dr. Theodore Friedmann, on January 30 to discuss how best to stimulate collaborative activities between the two organizations.

New RFA's/PA's

Alcohol Metabolism and Epigenetic Effects on Tissue Injury (RFA-AA-06-004 and -005)  These two RFA's solicit new studies on the identification and characterization of epigenetic mechanisms influencing alcohol-induced diseases and the mechanisms by which alcohol-induced changes in redox state and oxidative stress alter gene expression to cause tissue injury. The "-004" RFA uses the R01 research project grant mechanism, while the "-005" RFA uses the R21 exploratory/developmental grant mechanism. The application receipt date is March 28. For further information, contact Dr. José M. Velázquez at 301-443-8614, jvelazqu@mail.nih.gov.

Medications Development for the Treatment of Alcoholism (SBIR [R43/R44] and STTR [R41/R42])  These two RFA's solicit grant applications on the development of medications for alcohol abuse/dependence and alcohol-related diseases. NIAAA intends to commit $1 million for FY2006 to support two to four STTR (small business technology transfer) awards and $2 million to support three to six SBIR (small business innovation research) awards. These solicitations will cover Phase I, Phase II, Fast-Track, and Phase II competing renewal applications. These RFA's can be accessed on the web at https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090130213258/http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AA-06-006.html and https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090130213258/http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AA-06-007.html. For further information, contact Dr. Joanne Fertig at 301-443-0635, jfertig@mail.nih.gov.

Research Reports

The following items represent examples of the breadth and quality of research supported by NIAAA.

NIAAA Press Release: Anxiety and Alcohol Intake  Some research has suggested that high levels of anxiety may predispose individuals to becoming alcoholic. In this work, scientists found that rats bred to prefer alcohol ("P" rats) showed more anxiety-like behaviors and drank more alcohol than non alcohol-preferring "NP" rats. Levels of CREB, a protein involved in a variety of brain functions, were lower in certain brain areas of P rats compared with NP rats. Levels of neuropeptide Y (NPY), a molecule that regulates the function of several neurotransmitters and is known to play role in anxiety and alcohol-drinking behaviors, also were lower in P rats. One function of CREB is to regulate the production of NPY. Alcohol intake reduced anxiety-like behaviors in the P rats, an effect that was associated with increased CREB function and NPY production in the central and medial amygdala, areas known to play a role in anxiety behaviors and aspects of alcohol-related behavior. The work provides important clues about the neurobiology of alcohol-drinking behaviors in humans and avenues for identifying candidate medications for alcohol problems. (Pandey, S.C., Zhang, H., Roy, A., and Xu, T. Journal of Clinical Investigation 115:27623-2773, 2005.)

NIAAA Press Release: Sharper Picture of Major Depressive Disorder Risk  Findings from NIAAA's National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) provide a more precise picture than previously available of major depressive disorder (MDD) in specific population subgroups and of MDD's relationship to alcohol use disorders (AUDs). The new analysis of data from the study shows for the first time that middle age and Native American race increase the likelihood of current or lifetime MDD; also increasing the risk are female gender, low income, and separation, divorce, or widowhood. Asian, Hispanic, and black race-ethnicity reduce the risk. The highest lifetime risk of MDD was among middle-aged adults, a shift from the younger population shown to be at highest risk by surveys conducted during the 1980s and 1990s. The data showed that 5.28 percent of U.S. adults experienced MDD during the 12 months preceding the survey and 13.23 percent had experienced MDD at some time during their lives. The study also provides new, detailed information on the comorbidity of MDD and substance abuse and dependence; for example, survey results showed that, among persons with MDD, 14.1 percent also have an AUD, 4.6 percent have a drug use disorder, and 26 percent have nicotine dependence. The breadth of detail and precision of these data make them an important resource for both investigation and management of these disorders. (Hasin, D.S., Goodwin, R.D., Stinson, F.S., and Grant, B.F. Archives of General Psychiatry 62:1097-1106, 2005.)

Genotype Shapes Medication Effect  Medications that have been or are being tested for use in treating alcohol dependence are typically more effective in some people than in others. In this study, investigators compared the effects of a drug that counteracts a family of receptors known to be involved in the response to alcohol in people with and without a known genetic variant in one such receptor. The results showed that alcohol dependent individuals with a particular variant in the D4 dopamine receptor gene responded to the drug olanzapine; they experienced less craving following an alcohol cue, and reduced their drinking. Those in the study without the gene variant did not respond to the medication. This work helps provide insight into the reasons why results of tests with drugs like olanzapine vary among individuals; it also suggests that it may be possible to target particular drugs to individuals to increase the likelihood of effectiveness. (Hutchison, K.E., Ray, L., Sandman, E., Rutter, M.-C., Peters, A., Davidson, D., and Swift, R. Neuropsychopharmacology epub ahead of print, doi:10.1038/sj.npp.1300917.)

Immune Signaling in Liver Inflammation  Chronic inflammation occurs when white blood cells (lymphocytes) in circulation are drawn to and retained in tissue. Chemokines-one type of immune regulating protein produced by white blood cells-are among the factors that set this process in motion. In this study, scientists using a system that mimics the conditions of lymphocytes in circulation demonstrated that a chemokine receptor designated CXCR3 promotes lymphocyte adhesion in liver tissue. Understanding the sequence of cellular events that lead to inflammation is important to understanding the development of hepatitis, including that caused by alcohol. (Curbishley, S.M., Eksteen, B., Gladue, R.P., Lalor, P., and Adams, D.H. American Journal of Pathology 167:887-899, 2005.)

Imaging Tracks Subtle Brain Tissue Damage  Using an imaging technique that measures diffusion of water molecules, scientists were able to detect subtle disruption of tissue in the corpus callosum, a band of neural fibers that connect the brain's right and left hemispheres, in individuals with alcoholism. In parallel with imaging of the microstructural changes in the corpus callosum, this group used behavioral tests aimed at measuring the rapidity with which information is transferred between hemispheres. The results suggest that the subtle changes identified using these methods have a small but measurable effect on information processing across the two hemispheres. (Schulte, T., Sullivan, E.V., Müller-Oehring, E.M., Adalsteinsson, E., and Pfefferbaum, A. Cerbral Cortex 15:1384-1392, 2005.)

Galanin and Alcoholism Risk  Genetics researchers are finding that there are stretches of chromosomal DNA, or haplotypes, that tend to be transmitted from generation to generation en bloc. Haplotypes are useful in genetic analysis, because the same point variations (single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs) in such a stretch are likely to be inherited together; as a result, testing for one SNP should be sufficient to identify a haplotype with a characteristic set of other SNPs. In the intramural work reported here, investigators identified haplotypes encompassing the gene for the neuropeptide galanin, which has been implicated, in animal research, in excessive alcohol consumption and anxiety; they then compared the frequency of different haplotypes in alcoholic and nonalcoholic individuals in two populations. The results in men suggest that the galanin gene may contribute to vulnerability to alcoholism. Results in one population also suggest that the relationship of galanin with anxiety may be involved in its contribution to alcoholism risk. (Belfer, I., Hipp, H., McKnight, C., Evans, C., Buzas, B., Bollettino, A., Albaugh, B., Virkkunen, M., Yuan, Q, Max, M.B., Goldman, D. and Enoch, M.A. Molecular Psychiatry epub ahead of print, DOI:10.1038/sj.mp.4001768.)

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Cell Death  Alcohol consumed during pregnancy can have devastating effects on the brain of a developing fetus. Research has established that one mechanism of this damage is the death of alcohol-exposed neurons. Neurons involved in the signaling of the neurotransmitter serotonin are among those vulnerable to ethanol's effects. This work examined how agents that augment serotonin activity (serotonin agonists) protect against ethanol-induced cell death. Using inhibitors of enzymes that are known to be part of the signaling chain induced by serotonin agonists, these investigators identified two enzyme pathways that, when blocked, defeated the protective effects of the serotonin agonists. The work both helps add to the understanding to how ethanol damages the fetal brain, and provides clues to drugs that might prevent or ameliorate the harm. (Druse, M., Tajuddin, N.F., Gillespie, R.A., and Le, P. Developmental Brain Research 159:13-28, 2005.)

Gene X Environment in MAOA  The enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) inactivates the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Research has found that inborn variations in the gene for MAOA are associated with differences in levels of aggression in both humans and animals; early environment influences whether and how variations in MAOA activity are manifested in behavior. This intramural study found that in male rhesus monkeys, those who had low MAOA activity as a result of a genetic variant and were raised by their mothers showed more aggression than monkeys with the low activity variant who were raised by peers. Peer-raising is considered a model for early stress. Among the factors that might explain this unexpected result is that both MAOA and peer-rearing have been shown to increase reactivity to stress; stress reactivity can influence the degree to which an animal socializes with others, including socializing in an aggressive way. Understanding the complexities of gene/environment interactions shaping behavior can provide insights into the causes of behavioral disorders that underlie violence and substance abuse. (Newman, T.K., Syagailo, Y.V., Barr, C.S., Wendland, J.R., Champoux, M., Graessle, M., Suomi, S.J., Higley, J.D., and Lesch, K.-P. Biological Psychiatry 57:167-172, 2005.)

Comorbid Anxiety Syndromes Predict Relapse  Comorbid anxiety disorders are common among individuals with alcohol dependence. This study found that alcohol dependent individuals with an anxiety disorder at baseline were significantly more likely to relapse following treatment for their alcoholism. The study assessed the drinking of 82 people with alcohol dependence one week after they entered treatment and 120 days later. Rates of any alcohol use, any alcohol binge, or three consecutive days drinking by followup were all higher in those with an anxiety disorder than those without. The results suggest that screening of alcohol dependent individuals for anxiety disorders prior to treatment would be helpful in predicting increased risk to relapse. (Kushner, M.G., Abrams, K., Thuras, P. Hanson, K.L., Brekke, M., and Sletten, S. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 29:14321443, 2005.)

Stress and Alcohol Consumption in Adolescent Rats Given the prevalence of drinking among adolescents, and the problems that result, understanding alcohol consumption and its effects in adolescents is a key area of research. This study looked at stress and adolescent alcohol consumption in rats, an area in which previous results have been mixed. Adolescent rats in this study voluntarily consumed almost twice as much alcohol (relative to body weight) as adults, but in adolescents, and not adults, chronic stress suppressed alcohol consumption. Alcohol also disrupted the behavioral (but not hormonal) reaction to stress in adolescent but not adult rats. The study looked at other details of alcohol consumption in adolescents, for example, the effect of light/dark cycles, the patterns with which they consumed alcohol, and whether or not tolerance occurred. Animal studies can provide insights into how and why adolescents consume alcohol and the effects of alcohol on health and behavior. (Brunell, S.C. and Spear, L.P. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 29:1641-1653, 2005.)

Alcohol and Reactive Oxygen Species This intramural research team has reported previously on their development of a method for identifying cellular proteins that have been oxidized. The approach, which involves using a chemical probe to label oxidized proteins, provides a tool to study the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated during the breakdown of alcohol. Oxidative damage is an important mechanism of alcohol-related organ and tissue damage but the specifics of the process and the proteins affected are not well defined. In this work, they report on the use of their approach to investigate oxidative damage of proteins in the fluid (cytosolic) contents of the cells in alcohol-fed mice. The work revealed increased degradation of oxidized proteins in cells in these mice vs. those in mice fed a standard diet. Proteins affected included those involved in stress response and antioxidant defense systems. Further work should help clarify how these oxidative processes harm cellular function. (Kim, B.-J., Hood, B.L., Aragon, R.A., Hardwick, J.P., Conrads, T.P., Veenstra, T.D., and Song, B.J. Proteomics 2006, epub ahead of print, DOI 10.1002/pmic.200500447.)

F. Outreach

National Outreach

Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free  With the arrival of Oklahoma First Lady Kim Henry as a new member, the Leadership has grown to 38 States. Mrs. Henry was an award-winning high school teacher for ten years. She is a board member on a number of civic and educational organizations in Oklahoma, and a member of the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics.

Leadership member Lt. Governor James R. Aiona of Hawaii has been active in school-based efforts to prevent underage drinking. He proposed a ban of alcohol sales at University of Hawaii home games. It is up to each school in the Western Athletic Conference to set a policy on alcohol sales; five other schools in the conference have a policy that alcohol will not be sold in their stadiums at home football games. Lt. Governor Aiona has also visited elementary schools and high school athletic teams to discuss the dangers of alcohol use.

New Hampshire First Lady Susan Lynch has worked with State officials and New Futures, a New Hampshire-based nonprofit organization working to reduce underage alcohol problems, to launch the State's Strategy to Reduce Underage Alcohol Problems. The Strategy has laid out a road map for action for the next three years. Dr. Lynch has also promoted "Buyer Beware," a State public awareness campaign aimed at preventing adults from purchasing alcohol for minors.

National Middle School Conference  Jason Lazarow presented a teacher workshop and maintained an exhibit booth at the National Middle School Teachers Association Annual Conference (NMSA) November 3-5 in Philadelphia, PA. Teachers were provided with CD's, promotional items, posters, literature, and other resources, as well as information on how to implement alcohol-based education in their classrooms.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders  On September 9 (International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders [FASD] Awareness Day), Jason Lazarow made a presentation to the Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs on NIAAA's school-based activities and resources on FASD. Included in the discussion were NIAAA's "Better Safe Than Sorry" middle-school science curriculum and the soon to be released "FASD: A Toolbox for K-5 Educators."

National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information  On August 16, Jason Lazarow presented a workshop on NIAAA's science education programs to marketing and communications leaders at SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information.

Science Education Outreach in Tennessee  From November 30-December 2, Jason Lazarow spoke at four public high schools in Nashville, TN, highlighting our most current research findings on alcohol and the adolescent brain, as well as discussing FASD. Mr. Lazarow also provided a workshop attended by over 100 teachers at the National Science Teachers Association Southern Regional Conference in Nashville on our science education programs. The DANA Foundation sponsored the travel for this outreach effort. Vanderbilt University's Center for Science Outreach helped coordinate school activities.

Local Outreach

Alcoholic Liver Disease Exhibit  Dr. Vishnu Purohit presented information and an exhibit on alcohol liver disease to the students of J.F. Kennedy High School, Silver Spring, MD, on December 1.

Yorktown High School  On December 5, Jason Lazarow made presentations to five high school health classes at Yorktown High School in Arlington, VA, highlighting our most current research on alcohol use and adolescence.

G. Multi-MediaProducts from NIAAA

NIAAA Clinician's Guide Dissemination  During the fall, the revised Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much: A Clinician's Guide was disseminated to thousands of primary care and mental health practitioners and organizations through an extensive program of direct mail and email announcements. Guides were directly mailed to 42,000 members of the American Medical Association (with a joint cover letter from Dr. Li and the AMA President, Dr. J. Edward Hill); to 3,200 members of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (with the latest ASAM newsletter containing an interview with NIAAA's Dr. Mark Willenbring); to 200 members of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse; and to 125 medical school deans in the Association of American Medical Colleges. In addition, emails announcing the Guide's availability were sent to 180 associations of primary care, mental health, substance abuse, and criminal justice professionals, as well as dozens of health maintenance and behavioral managed care organizations. Requests for large numbers of copies have been received from HMOs, behavioral managed care organizations, nursing and medical schools, and community health care programs. The Guide is available full text in the publications section of the NIAAA website (www.niaaa.nih.gov).

Alcohol Research & Health  Two issues of Alcohol Research & Health were printed and disseminated: "Alcohol and Development in Youth: A Multidisciplinary Overview" and "Focus on Young Adults." Upcoming issues focus on health services research and NESARC. Full text of the published journals is available on the NIAAA website.

Alcohol Alerts  The Alcohol Alert issue, "Brief Interventions," was printed and disseminated. The issue, "Underage Drinking Prevention-A Complex Problem," has been sent to the printers.

Award for Clinician's Guide  NIAAA has received a Distinguished Publication Award from the DC chapter of the Society for Technical Communications for Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much: A Clinician's Guide. The Guide will now be sent to the International STC for its competition.

The Cool Spot  The popular middle school poster that promotes the NIAAA web site, The Cool Spot, has been updated before reprinting. The poster features a vending machine filled with items representing common middle school students' interests in sports, music, art, reading, movies, and computers. The tag line reads "With so many things to do, no wonder most kids choose not to drink." A key change in the new version was replacing the outdated items.

To market the The Cool Spot, the Institute's website for middle school children, in-depth interviews were conducted with a several "gatekeepers." The gatekeepers represented school-based and after-school programs in both rural and urban environments, including the American School Counselors Association, the Boys and Girls Club of America, Montgomery County (Md) Public Schools, and 4-H. Based on the interviews, we are developing promotional strategies targeted to middle schools and to specific youth programs. In addition, we will be enhancing the site with audio features, a dedicated teacher/volunteer section, and sample lesson plans.

College Website Updated  NIAAA has updated its website on college drinking, "College Drinking-Changing the Culture." The redesigned site permits easier and quicker navigation to locate information. Several updates have been added, among them new statistics and research papers from the task force chairs, and a new section on choosing a college. Users can now navigate by topic or by audience, which provides faster access to relevant information.

New Year's Eve Fact Sheet  Continuing its seasonal outreach series, the Communications and Public Liaison Branch (CPLB) released its New Year's Eve fact sheet in December. The fact sheet, which focuses on how the body metabolizes alcohol, was selected by PR Newswire as their top story on December 15. It has also been featured on a wide range of websites, including Yahoo News and the Auto Channel. In addition, several organizations partnered with NIAAA to distribute hard copies of the fact sheet, including the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP), the Montgomery County (MD) Police Department, and the office of U.S. Representative (MD) Chris Van Hollen. All fact sheets in this series contain relevant statistics presented in an easy-to-understand "infograph" style, practical science-based commentary, and web site addresses for additional information. They are disseminated widely through electronic media distribution channels, and through selected partner organizations.

NIAAA Newsletter  The fall 2005 issue of NIAAA's newsletter featured items on NIH moving to electronic grant applications, awards, new publications, personnel news, and upcoming events.

Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America  As part of its ongoing outreach efforts with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), CPLB arranged to have selected NIAAA scientists interviewed for special columns in CADCA's online newsletter, Coalitions Online. For the October 6 issue, Dr. Mark Willenbring discussed advances in treatment for alcohol abuse. On December 8, Dr. Ralph Hingson was featured in a piece on preventing alcohol-related fatalities during the holidays. Additional NIAAA scientists will be highlighted throughout 2006. Each issue of the Coalitions Online newsletter reaches approximately 13,000 community development and treatment professionals in CADCA's network.

Plain Language Award Jason Lazarow and Roger Hartman received an "outstanding" award at the NIH Plain Language Award ceremony for their work on the NIH/NIAAA curriculum supplement "Understanding Alcohol: Investigations into Biology and Behavior." This curriculum, which was designed for use in upper middle school science classrooms, includes teacher background materials, guided hands-on lessons, demonstration activities, and various multimedia components. Students learn about how alcohol travels through the bloodstream, BAC level variation among men and women, and dose-response curves (including the influence of genetics, time and dosage). Activities also address the social, economic and environmental impact of alcohol.

H. What's Ahead

Methodology of Conducting Pharmacologic Clinical Trials in Patients With Alcohol/Drug Dependence and Psychiatric Comorbidity NIAAA, NIDA, and the National Institute of Mental Health will be collaborating on a workshop on Methodology of Conducting Pharmacologic Clinical Trials in Patients with Alcohol/Drug Dependence and Psychiatric Comorbidity February 28-March 1, in Bethesda. Dr. Raye Litten is the contact at NIAAA: rlitten@mail.nih.gov, 301-443-0636.

Prepared: February 10, 2006