荷兰伊拉斯漠斯大学医学中心的研究人员在对1.8万人进行调查后认为，爱喝咖啡可能与基因有关。
荷兰科学家的研究结果表明，人体肝脏会产生出数种不同的蛋白质，可以分解咖啡因。人体中这些蛋白质的数量与人体对咖啡因的耐受量密切相关。
进一步研究发现，负责制造这些蛋白质的基因包括“CYPIA1”和“NRCAM”。如果体内这两种基因表现活跃，人就会爱喝咖啡，而且不太容易出现大量摄入咖啡因后的不良感觉。
相关论文发表在9月5日的英国《分子精神病学》（Molecular Psychiatry）上。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
doi:10.1038/mp.2011.101
PMC:
PMID:
Genome-wide association analysis of coffee drinking suggests association with CYP1A1|[sol]|CYP1A2 and NRCAM
N Amin, E Byrne, J Johnson, G Chenevix-Trench, S Walter, I M Nolte, J M Vink, R Rawal, M Mangino, A Teumer, J C Keers, G Verwoert, S Baumeister, R Biffar, A Petersmann, N Dahmen, A Doering, A Isaacs, L Broer, N R Wray, G W Montgomery, D Levy, B M Psaty, V Gudnason, A Chakravarti, P Sulem, D F Gudbjartsson, L A Kiemeney, U Thorsteinsdottir, K Stefansson, F J A van Rooij, Y S Aulchenko, J J Hottenga, F R Rivadeneira, A Hofman, A G Uitterlinden, C J Hammond, S-Y Shin, A Ikram, J C M Witteman, A C J
Coffee consumption is a model for addictive behavior. We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on coffee intake from 8 Caucasian cohorts (N=18 176) and sought replication of our top findings in a further 7929 individuals. We also performed a gene expression analysis treating different cell lines with caffeine. Genome-wide significant association was observed for two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the 15q24 region. The two SNPs rs2470893 and rs2472297 (P-values=1.6 × 10−11 and 2.7 × 10−11), which were also in strong linkage disequilibrium (r2=0.7) with each other, lie in the 23-kb long commonly shared 5′ flanking region between CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 genes. CYP1A1 was found to be downregulated in lymphoblastoid cell lines treated with caffeine. CYP1A1 is known to metabolize polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are important constituents of coffee, whereas CYP1A2 is involved in the primary metabolism of caffeine. Significant evidence of association was also detected at rs382140 (P-value=3.9 × 10−09) near NRCAM—a gene implicated in vulnerability to addiction, and at another independent hit rs6495122 (P-value=7.1 × 10−09)—an SNP associated with blood pressure—in the 15q24 region near the gene ULK3, in the meta-analysis of discovery and replication cohorts. Our results from GWASs and expression analysis also strongly implicate CAB39L in coffee drinking. Pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed significantly enriched ubiquitin proteasome (P-value=2.2 × 10−05) and Parkinson's disease pathways (P-value=3.6 × 10−05).
