[Verification and Validation on Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Analysis of Alcohol Metabolism-Related Genes ADH1B and...

We have developed a new method for unprocessed biological specimens as templates directly into the TaqMan assay. Saliva was needed to be put on a water-soluble paper and dried, because foreign substances, such as a filter paper, hinder fluorescence detection through the assay. Genotyping of alcohol metabolism-related genes ADH1B (rs1229984) and ALDH2 (rs671) polymorphisms was, subsequently, performed by TaqMan PCR assay using dried saliva in the present investigation. The optimized technique was tested on 114 samples of alcoholic patients. The PCR-RFLP methods with purified DNA from blood samples were employed for validation of the assay. Upon validation, complete concordance was observed between the two independent results. These results highlight the ability of TaqMan PCR assays using dried saliva on water-soluble paper in genotyping of ADH1B and ALDH2 genes. Our results showed a rapid, simple, reliable, and cost-effective method for SNP genotyping of mutations in ADH1B and ALDH2 genes. This will be very useful for large-scale association studies in various fields. [Original].