34th International Medical Advisory Group Conference

Copenhagen, Denmark—October 15–19, 2006

A Showcase for the ERAB Grant Program

Copenhagen was the setting for the 34th International Medical Advisory Conference hosted by the Brewers of Europe October 15-19, with scientific program planning provided by the European Research Advisory Board (ERAB). Many of the scientific presentations featured work by ERAB grantees, signifying that the grantmaking organization founded in Brussels in 2003 has come of age. ERAB, while funded by the Brewers of Europe, operates independently with administrative oversight provided by a Board of Directors that includes ABMRF’s President, Dr. Mack Mitchell.

Structured similarly to ABMRF’s biomedical and psychosocial Advisory Councils, ERAB has an Advisory Board chaired by Professor Philippe de Witte of the Universite Catholiqué de Louvain that oversees a grant program offering several types of awards. ERAB Research Grants provide funding on any aspect of biomedical or psychosocial research on beer or alcohol for researchers from established European research institutions or universities and are available in amounts up to EUR 120,000. ERAB Travel Awards facilitate conference participation by young researchers based at academic institutions in European Union member countries. ERAB Research Exchange Awards fund visits by European Union-based young researchers to alcohol-related laboratories or research groups anywhere in the world to help the junior researchers gain expertise or exchange information.

Alcohol, Vascular Disease and Lifestyle

The session on Alcohol, Vascular Disease and Lifestyle featured six papers and was chaired by Professor Wolfgang Koenig of the University of Ulm Medical Center and Professor Victor Preedy of King’s College London. The session opened with a talk by Dr. Michel de Lorgeril, an ERAB Research Grant recipient from the Universite Joseph Fourier in France and was entitled, “Alcohol, Good or Bad in Ageing? An Overview.” The talk cited a number of studies examining whether alcohol modifies the risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and dementia, which are the main causes of death when aging.

Professor Preedy’s talk mentioned the work of several former ABMRF grantees including Drs. Charles Hennekens, Umed Ajani, and Paul Ridker. Dr. Armin Imhof, an ERAB Research Grant recipient from the University of Ulm in Germany, presented a paper entitled, “Alcohol, Inflammation and Atherosclerosis,” that offered insights into evidence of an anti-inflammatory action of moderate alcohol consumption. Professor Filippo Crea, an ERAB Research Grant recipient from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, presented “Mechanisms of the Protective Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Cardiovascular Risk and on Myocardial Preconditioning,” concluding that cardiovascular risk reduction associated with moderate alcohol consumption appears to be mediated by beneficial effects on atherogenesis, on arterial thrombotic events, and on the response to myocardial necrosis. Dr. Joline Beulens from TNO Nutrition and Food Research in The Netherlands and a recipient of an ERAB Research Exchange Award, presented a paper entitled, “Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke in Hypertensive Men,” offering conclusions that alcohol consumption is associated with decreased risk of coronary heart disease among hypertensive men, a similar association as found in non-hypertensive men in the general population. Professor Giovanni de Gaetano of the Catholic University in Campobasso, Italy, presented an overview paper entitled, “Effects of Alcohol on Cardiovascular Risk and Total Mortality,” confirming the hazards of excess drinking and the existence of potential windows of light-moderate alcohol intake which may confer a net beneficial effect of drinking, in terms of survival for men and women. The session concluded with a speaker familiar to those audience members who attended the 2002 IMAG in Brussels, Professor Jonathan Powell of the Medical Research Council Collaborative Centre for Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge, who provided an overview of “Moderate Alcohol Ingestion and Bone Quality: Old Associations but New Mechanisms.” Dr. Powell discussed research showing that excessive alcohol consumption is associated with abnormal bone loss, whereas moderate alcohol intake is associated with suppression of the loss of bone substance, or resorption. He offered insights into the role of orthosilicic acid in the process, a nutrient in beer that is also involved in bone formation.

Neuroscience - Alcohol and Nicotine Interactions
The session on Neuroscience – Alcohol and Nicotine Interactions was chaired by Professor Philippe de Witte of the Universite Catholiqué de Louvain and Professor Giovanni Addolorato at the Catholic University of Rome. It featured four presentations with the first being by Professor Giancarlo Colombo, an ERAB Research Grant recipient from the CNR Institute of Neuroscience in Cagliari, Italy. He presented a paper entitled, “Animal Models for Studying Alcohol Effects on the Brain,” highlighting his work with Sardinian lines of alcohol-preferring and alcohol non-preferring rats as a model to examine excessive alcohol consumption. Professor Philippe de Witte, session co-chair and recipient of an ERAB Research Grant, presented a paper entitled, “Alcohol and Nicotine Interactions: Molecular Studies,” exploring at a molecular level the intriguing finding that 80% of alcoholics smoke cigarettes. Dr. Przemyslaw Bienkowski, a recipient of an ERAB Research Exchange Award from the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw, presented a paper entitled, “Alcohol and Nicotine Interactions: Behavioural Studies,” offering findings that chronic nicotine administration leads to long-lasting increase in alcohol administration and that acquiring cigarette smoking early may facilitate heavy drinking and development of alcohol abuse or dependence. Dr. Bo Söderpalm of Sweden’s Göteborg University offered a talk entitled, “Experimental and Clinical Implications of the Relationships between Alcohol and Nicotine,” presenting findings in animal studies that nicotine exposure during the third trimester or later in life enhances ethanol consumption and the effects may derive from nicotine development of behavioral disinhibition and may involve certain peripheral nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Both Drs. Bienkowski and Söderpalm cited the work of former ABMRF grantee, Dr. Pamela Madden.

Alcohol, Cancer and Epidemiology

Professor Piet van den Brandt of Maastricht University and Dr. Silvano Gallus of the Instituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, chaired the session on Alcohol, Cancer and Epidemiology. Professor van den Brandt offered an overview of the topic with his talk entitled, “Alcohol and Cancer Risk,” that discussed an increased risk of several cancers that is seen in consumption levels above 2-3 drinks per day. Dr. Silvano Gallus, a recipient of an ERAB Research Grant, offered a paper entitled, “Role of Different Types of Alcohol on the Risk of Cancer,” that offered new insight into cancer risk of different types of alcoholic beverages from an Italian perspective, noting that most knowledge to date came from data collected in northern Europe and North America. Dr Martje Weijenberg, a recipient of an ERAB Research Grant and her doctoral student Brenda Bongaerts, from the University of Maastricht, presented a paper entitled, “Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Genetic Alterations in Genes Involved in Colorectal Cancer in the Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer," that offered findings that alcohol intakes above 30 grams/day increases the risk of colorectal cancer and that the risk seems independent of the presence or absence of genetic aberrations.

Genetics

Professor Oliver James of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne chaired the session on Genetics. Professor Chris Day, a Newcastle colleague, presented work funded by an ERAB Research Grant in his paper entitled, “Susceptibility to Alcoholic Liver Disease,” that offered exciting insights into development of state-of-the art techniques that have significant potential to offer new prevention and therapeutic strategies. The work by Professor Howard Thomas, a recipient of an ERAB Research Grant from the Department of Medicine, Imperial College, St. Mary’s Hospital in London, comprised the other half of this session with “Identification of a Candidate Gene Influencing Alcohol Intake, Using a Mouse Line with Alcohol Preference Induced by ENU Mutagenesis.” ENU, or ethylnitrosourcea, is an agent that is used in the laboratory to induce gene mutations that enable the study of various dominant and recessive traits.

Young People and Drinking

The session on Young People and Drinking, featuring four presenters, was chaired by Mr. Robert Madelin, Director-General for the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate of the European Union. Dr. Marie Choquet from Inserm in Paris opened the session with a talk, “Binge Drinking in Europe,” that offered important insights into differences between the Northern countries, the Mediterranean countries, and eastern European countries. Dr. Marianne Van den Bree, a recipient of an ERAB Research Grant from Cardiff University in the UK, presented a talk entitled, “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Risk Factors of Adolescent Alcohol Use and Problem Use,” noting that in order to develop effective prevention and intervention initiatives, the risk factors contributing to adolescent alcohol involvement must be clearly understood. Professor Mary McMurran, a recipient of an ERAB Research Grant from the University of Nottingham in the U.K., offered a talk entitled, “Alcohol Aggression Outcome Expectancies,” that included among the findings that increased beliefs that alcohol leads to violence, may lead to an increase in alcohol-related aggression. The final talk of the conference was presented by Ms. Bridgette Maree Bewick, an ERAB Research Grant recipient from the U.K.’s University of Leeds. It was entitled, “The Effectiveness of Web-Based Interventions Designed to Decrease Alcohol Consumption–A Systematic Review,” and offered preliminary evidence that web-based interventions have potential to prevent alcohol abuse, but much further research is needed to design effective web-based programs.