Alcohol use disorder-associated DNA methylation differences in nucleus accumbens and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has a profound public health impact and understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of AUD remain limited. Many genetic risk loci have been identified for AUD or alcohol consumption, though the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these loci remain largely unknown. DNA methylation (DNAm) differences between individuals with and without AUD can provide insight into the mechanisms that predispose to AUD and consequences of AUD itself. Here, we provide Illumina HumanMethylation EPIC array data generated in nucleus accumbens and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, both addiction relevant brain tissues, from 119 decedents of European ancestry: 61 controls and 58 cases. From these data we have conducted an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) and identified several CpG associations with AUD. A subset of the identified CpGs map to genes that were previoulsy identified as associated with substance use behaviors in genetic studies, but the other CpGs map to genes previoulsy unassociated with substance use behaviors and are novel. Genome-wide DNAm data were measured in postmortem nucleus accumbens (NAc) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) tissue with the HumanMethylation EPIC BeadChip array. The dataset includes data from 119 deceased individuals: 61 controls (57 with data from NAc and DLPFC, 2 NAc only, 2 DLPFC only) and 58 DSM-5 AUD cases (56 with data from NAc and DLPFC, 0 NAc only, 2 DLPFC only).