(OR06-04-26) Metabolomics Analysis of Biomarkers of Low to Moderate Alcohol Intake in the Postmenopausal Women’s Alcohol Study: A Randomized Controlled Crossover Feeding Study

Saturday, July 25, 2026

10:36 AM - 10:48 AM ET

Location: National Harbor 4-5

Presenting Author(s)

YY

Yukiko Yano, PhD

Research Fellow
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Rockville, Maryland, United States

Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Co-Author(s)

PA

Paul Albert

National Cancer Institute, United States
SR

Siddharth Roy

National Cancer Institute, United States
ZF

Zeinab Farhat

National Cancer Institute, United States
DB

David Baer

U.S. Department of Agriculture, United States
SM

Steven Moore

National Cancer Institute, United States
JD

Joanne Dorgan

University of Maryland School of Medicine, United States
VV

Vivian Viallon

International Agency for Research on Cancer, France
PK

Pekka Keski-Rahkonen

International Agency for Research on Cancer, France
PF

Pietro Ferrari

International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, France
CA

Christian C. Abnet

National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States
EL

Erikka Loftfield

National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, United States

Disclosure(s):

Yukiko Yano, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Objectives: There are currently no validated biomarkers to assess low to moderate levels of alcohol consumption. We used a semi-targeted metabolomics platform to identify biomarkers of low to moderate alcohol consumption with plasma samples collected in the Postmenopausal Women’s Alcohol Study (WAS), a randomized controlled crossover feeding study.

Methods: In the WAS, postmenopausal women (n=51) were randomly assigned to consume 0, 15, or 30 g of alcohol per day (equivalent to 0, 1, or 2 drinks per day) for 8 weeks each as part of a controlled diet, with washout periods between treatments. Metabolites were measured in baseline, washout, and post-treatment fasting plasma samples. Linear mixed effects models were used to identify metabolites significantly altered by alcohol intake.

Results: A total of 1,422 metabolites were measured with the semi-targeted metabolomics platform, of which 150 were previously reported to be correlated with alcohol intake in observational studies. Alcohol intake significantly altered plasma levels of 46 metabolites, including xenobiotics directly related to alcohol, ethyl glucuronide and ethyl alpha-glucopyranoside; alpha-hydroxyisovalerate; 2-aminobutyrate; androgenic steroids, and multiple phosphatidylcholines. Top-ranking metabolites displayed clear dose-response relationships with alcohol dose – most notably, ethyl alpha-glucopyranoside, which showed a strong positive relationship with alcohol dose (461% and 900% change for 15 and 30 g of alcohol per day, respectively, compared with 0g alcohol per day). We also replicated associations for 14 alcohol-related metabolites previously reported in the literature, in addition to discovering a number of new potential markers of low to moderate alcohol intake.

Conclusions: In a tightly controlled feeding study, consumption of one or two alcoholic drinks per day changed plasma levels of 46 metabolites, suggesting their utility as biomarkers that can provide objective measures of low to moderate alcohol consumption, with opportunities to conduct etiologic research in existing cohorts with metabolomics data.

Funding Sources: U.S. National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service