Watch your alcohol consumption; it can damage DNA, increase cancer risk

Alcohol consumption permanently damages the DNA in stem cells, which in turn increases the risk of developing cancer, a study led by an Indian-origin scientist warns.

Much previous research looking at the precise ways in which alcohol causes cancer has been done in cell cultures.

However, in the new study, researchers used mice to show how alcohol exposure leads to permanent genetic damage.

Scientists  gave diluted alcohol, chemically known as ethanol, to mice.

They then used chromosome analysis and DNA sequencing to examine the genetic damage caused by acetaldehyde, a harmful chemical produced when the body processes alcohol.

The researchers found that acetaldehyde can break and damage DNA within blood stem cells leading to rearranged chromosomes and permanently altering the DNA sequences within these cells.

"Some cancers develop due to DNA damage in stem cells," said q Professor.

"While some damage occurs by chance, our findings suggest that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of this damage," said the lead author of the study.

It is important to understand how the DNA blueprint within stem cells is damaged because when healthy stem cells become faulty, they can give rise to cancer, researchers said.

The new findings help us to understand how drinking alcohol increases the risk of developing seven types of cancer including common types like breast and bowel, they said.

The study also examined how the body tries to protect itself against damage caused  by alcohol. The first line of defence is a family of enzymes called aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDH).

These enzymes break down harmful acetaldehyde into acetate, which our cells can use as a source of energy.

Worldwide, millions of people, particularly those from South East Asia, either lack these enzymes or carry faulty versions of them, researchers said.

When they drink, acetaldehyde builds up which causes a flushed complexion, and also leads to them feeling unwell, they said.

In the study, when mice lacking the critical ALDH enzyme - ALDH2 - were given alcohol, it resulted in four times as much DNA damage in their cells compared to mice with the fully functioning ALDH2 enzyme.

The second line of defense used by cells is a variety of DNA repair systems which, most of the time, allow them to fix and reverse different types of DNA damage.

However, they do not always work and some people carry mutations which mean their cells are not able to carry out these repairs effectively.

"Our study highlights that not being able to process alcohol effectively can lead to an even higher risk of alcohol-related DNA damage and therefore certain cancers," the author said.

"But it is important to remember that alcohol clearance and DNA repair systems are not perfect and alcohol can still cause cancer in different ways, even in people whose defense mechanisms are intact," he added.


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Alcohol consumption permanently damages the DNA in stem cells, which in turn increases the risk of developing cancer, a study led by an Indian-origin scientist warns.

Much previous research looking at the precise ways in which alcohol causes cancer has been done in cell cultures.

However, in the new study, researchers used mice to show how alcohol exposure leads to permanent genetic damage.

Scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the Univer ..

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E. coli outbreak in Europe caused by new strain: WHO

The World Health Organisation said on Thursday that the E. coli bacteria responsible for an outbreak that has left 17 dead and sickened hundreds in Europe is a new strain that has never been seen before.

Preliminary genetic sequencing suggests the strain is a mutant form of two different E. coli bacteria, with lethal genes that could explain why the Europe-wide outbreak appears to be so massive and dangerous, the agency said.

A food safety expert at the WHO told  that  this is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before  &  added that the new strain has various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing.

So far, the mutant E. coli strain has sickened more than 1,500 others, including 470 who have developed a rare kidney failure complication. Researchers have been unable to pinpoint the cause the outbreak, which has hit at least nine European countries.

Nearly all the sick people either live in Germany or recently travelled there. Two people who were sickened are now in the United States, and both had recently travelled to Hamburg, Germany, where many of the infections occurred.

Medical authorities appeared late Wednesday no closer to discovering the source of the infection. The outbreak is already considered the third-largest involving E. coli in recent world history, and it may be the deadliest. Twelve people died in a 1996 Japanese outbreak that reportedly sickened more than 12,000, and seven died in a 2000 Canadian outbreak.