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Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), through collaborative e fforts with the NIH-funded INIAstress Consortium, have identified novel potassium (K+) channel genes within addiction brain circuitry that are altered by alcohol dependence and correlate with drinking levels in a mouse model of alcohol drinking. Significant reduction of heavy alcohol drinking after administration of a KV7 channel-positive modulator validated Kcnq, one of the identified genes that encodes KV7 type K+ channels, as a potential pharmacogenetic target. These preclinical findings, published in the February 2017 special issue of  Alcohol  on mouse genetic models of alcohol-stress interactions, suggest that K+ channels could be promising therapeutic targets that may advance personalized medicine approaches for treating heavy drinking in alcoholics. Alcohol is known to change how neurons fire, and K+ channels play a crucial role in modulating a neuron's excitability by return...

The study, published recently in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, followed a randomly selected cohort of 588 Georgia students for seven consecutive years as they progressed through middle and high school. During that period, students self-reported instances of slapping, kicking, punching, scratching or shoving a romantic partner; slamming a partner against a wall; throwing something at a partner that could cause injury; or using an object to injure a partner. "Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem," said Pamela Orpinas, lead author of the study and professor of health promotion and behavior in UGA's College of Public Health. "It affects people in the moment because of the aggression, but it also has long-term consequences." In a previous study, the researchers identified two groups from their cohort: students who were not involved in dating violence during the seven years of the study and students with an increasing probabilit...