IL17RB genetic variants are associated with acamprosate treatment response in patients with alcohol use disorder: A proteomics-informed genomics study

Acamprosate is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medication for the treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, only a subset of patients achieves optimal treatment outcomes. Currently, no biological measures are utilized to predict response to acamprosate treatment. We applied our established pharmaco-omics informed genomics strategy to identify potential biomarkers associated with acamprosate treatment response. Specifically, our previous open-label acamprosate clinical trial recruited 442 patients with AUD who were treated with acamprosate for three months. We first performed proteomics using baseline plasma samples to identify potential biomarkers associated with acamprosate treatment outcomes. Next, we applied our established "proteomics-informed genome-wide association study (GWAS)" research strategy, and identified 12 proteins, including interleukin-17 receptor B (IL17RB), associated with acamprosate treatment response.​ A GWAS for IL17RB concentrations identified several genome-wide significant signals. Specifically, the top hit single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs6801605 with a minor allele frequency of 38% in the European American population mapped 4 kilobase (Kb) upstream of IL17RB, and intron 1 of the choline dehydrogenase (CHDH) gene on chromosome 3 (p: 4.8E-20). The variant genotype (AA) for the SNP rs6801605 was associated with lower IL17RB protein expression. In addition, we identified a series of genetic variants in IL17RB that were associated with acamprosate treatment outcomes. Furthermore, the variant genotypes for all of those IL17RB SNPs were protective for alcohol relapse. Finally, we demonstrated that the basal level of mRNA expression of IL17RB was inversely correlated with those of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) subunits, and a significantly higher expression of NF-κB subunits was observed in AUD patients who relapsed to alcohol use. In summary, this study illustrates that IL17RB genetic variants might contribute to acamprosate treatment outcomes. This series of studies represents an important step toward generating functional hypotheses that could be tested to gain insight into mechanisms underlying acamprosate treatment response phenotypes. (The ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00662571).