ZSCAN25 methylation predicts seizures and severe alcohol withdrawal syndrome

Currently, clinicians use their judgement and indices such as the Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome Scale (PAWSS) to determine whether patients are admitted to hospitals for consideration of withdrawal syndrome (AWS). However, only a fraction of those admitted will experience severe AWS. Previously, we and others have shown that epigenetic indices, such as the Alcohol T-Score (ATS), can quantify recent alcohol consumption. However, whether these or other alcohol biomarkers, such as carbohydrate deficient transferrin (CDT), could identify those at risk for severe AWS is unknown. To determine this, we first conducted genome-wide DNA methylation analyses of subjects entering and exiting alcohol treatment to identify loci whose methylation quickly reverted as a function of abstinence. We then tested whether methylation at a rapidly reverting locus, cg07375256, or other existing metrics including PAWSS scores, CDT levels, or ATS, could predict outcome in 125 subjects admitted for consideration of AWS. We found that PAWSS did not significantly predict severe AWS nor seizures. However, methylation at cg07375256 (ZSCAN25) and CDT strongly predicted severe AWS with ATS (p < 0.007) and cg07375256 (p < 6 × 10-5) methylation also predicting AWS associated seizures. We conclude that epigenetic methods can predict those likely to experience severe AWS and that the use of these or similar Precision Epigenetic approaches could better guide AWS management.