Two Clinically Implementable Digital PCR Assessments of DNA Methylation for Diagnosing Heavy Alcohol Consumption

Heavy alcohol consumption (HAC) has a profound adverse effect on human health. Unfortunately, there is a relative lack of tools that are easily implementable in clinical settings and that can be used to supplement self-reporting in the diagnosis and management of HAC. In part, this paucity is due to limitations of currently available biological measures and a mismatch between available biological measures and the needs of clinicians managing HAC.

We first review the pros and cons of existing biological measures. Next, we review the underlying theory and the performance characteristics of two recently developed methylation-sensitive digital PCR (MSdPCR) assays, referred to as the Alcohol T Score (ATS) and ZSCAN25, for the assessment of chronic and recent HAC, respectively. Finally, we outline a paradigm for improving the clinical diagnosis and management of alcohol use disorders by utilizing these new markers of alcohol consumption.

We conclude that further studies to understand the test performance characteristics of each of these epigenetic tools in larger, diverse populations are in order.