Pre-Exposure Behavioral and Physiological Markers Predict Future Alcohol Consumption Under Free Choice in Rhesus...

To assess utility of various behavioral and physiological parameters from study in a nonhuman primate model as predictive biomarkers for future alcohol consumption.

Data used in the study have been derived from 36 male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) participated in a chronic oral alcohol self-administration experiment lasting 920 days. Seventeen indicators of spontaneous behavior registered using the ethogram and eight physiological parameters were obtained before animal exposure to ethanol. Subsequently, alcohol self-administration under free choice with water was initiated. Median value of ethanol consumption for each monkey was calculated from daily measurements collected over a 55-day period of unrestricted access to the ethanol solution (4% v/v). Discriminant analysis was performed using behavior and physiological parameters with the highest F coefficients of the canonical discriminant function. Five parameters of the discriminant function (two behavior indicators, total protein, serum cortisol and body weight) were selected based on the results of several analysis cycles. A discriminant function equation separating two groups of animals was derived. 36 study animals were divided into two groups by average value of 0.97 g/kg/day for individual medians of the 55-day ethanol consumption.

83.3% of the originally grouped observations were correctly classified using a discriminant function derived from behavioral and physiological parameters prior to ethanol exposure.

A discriminant model was derived which allows to delineate future light drinkers from group of moderate and heavy ones with high accuracy prior to ethanol exposure in a free choice ethanol consumption model.