# Phosphatidylethanol and Other Ethanol Consumption Markers

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCIENCE CENTER · 2024 · $585,259

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
This renewal extends work accomplished during the previous award period and seeks to improve our ability to
characterize alcohol drinking through the measurement of blood levels of phosphatidylethanol (PEth).
Previously, we showed that: (a) PEth can detect recent alcohol consumption; (b) PEth levels are alcohol-dose
dependent; (c) PEth homologs have different rates of synthesis and elimination potentially useful in
differentiating recency of drinking; (d) there are no sex differences in PEth synthesis and elimination; and (e)
most importantly, there is substantial variability in PEth synthesis and elimination between people, even after
the same dose of alcohol is consumed. This variability raises significant concerns over current practices. PEth
is now accepted as a valid laboratory test for detecting recent alcohol use in forensic and legal court matters.
Distinct cut-offs of PEth levels have been adopted to indicate "light or no consumption", "significant
consumption", and "heavy consumption". Unfortunately, because there are significant differences in PEth
levels achieved in people given the same dose of alcohol, it could lead to misclassification of drinking. We now
propose to identify probable sources of variability in PEth levels and use biological/enzymatic variables to
develop equations to improve identification of alcohol consumption in the “real world”. We propose 3
experiments. An in vivo pharmacokinetic study that has 2 phases whereby participants consume 3 different
doses of alcohol and blood samples will be collected repeatedly during a 6-hour period to characterize blood
alcohol concentration and PEth synthesis. We will then characterize PEth elimination across a 10-day period
while remaining alcohol abstinent outside the lab. Second, alcohol-free blood collected from Aim 1 will be
examined ex vivo to characterize key biological variables (e.g., enzyme activity, red blood cell count, precursor
levels) involved in PEth synthesis and elimination. Equations will be used to evaluate these variables for their
ability to explain previously unexplained between-subject differences in the PEth levels formed after the same
amount of alcohol is consumed. Lastly, equations will be used to evaluate the value of using these
biological/enzyme variables to improve the prediction of 28-days of naturalistic drinking. Our Specific Aims
are to: examine the pharmacokinetics of blood alcohol and PEth synthesis/elimination following controlled
consumption of alcohol (Aim 1); identify key biological variables (e.g., enzyme activity, RBC count, and/or PEth
precursor levels) involved in PEth pharmacokinetics that can account for the previously unexplained between-
subject variance observed in vivo (Aim 2); and determine the use of PEth levels, with key biological variables
to identify drinking observed naturalistically. Study results will demonstrate that key biological variables can be
tested in clinical laboratory studies and found useful ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10981893
- **Project number:** 2R01AA022361-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCIENCE CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Donald M Dougherty
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $585,259
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2013-09-25 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10981893

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10981893, Phosphatidylethanol and Other Ethanol Consumption Markers (2R01AA022361-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10981893. Licensed CC0.

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