What is PEth alcohol testing?

Phosphatidylethanols (PEth) are a group of phospholipids formed only in the presence of ethanol via the action of phospholipase D (PLD). The lipid accumulates in the brain and competes at agonists sites of lipid-gated ion channels contributing to alcohol intoxication. The chemical similarity of PEth to phosphatidic acid (PA) and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) suggest a likely broad perturbation to lipid signaling, the exact role of PEth as a competitive lipid ligand has not been studied extensively. You can read more about commercial PEth testing companies here.

PEths are a group of phospholipids with a common phosphoethanol head group with two fatty acid chains that differ in chain length and degree of unsaturation.

Alcohol consumption is an ongoing public health issue that represents up to five percent of the global disease burden. Clinical evaluation of alcohol abuse has historically relied upon measurement of serum liver enzymes of corpuscular volume of red blood cells. However, these measures can often be inaccurate owing to other health complications that often overlap with heavy alcohol use. More recent analyses have begun to make use of alcohol metabolites as biomarkers for alcohol use. One of these is a phospholipid named phosphatidylethanol, aka PEth, which is produced from phosphatidylcholine via phospholipase-d (PLD). Under normal conditions in the presence of water, PLD converts phosphatidylcholine to phosphatidic acid. However, PLD can also utilize ethanol which generates a different modification to the lipid headgroup and results in PEth.

Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is a direct biomarker. The test is not a new method for monitoring alcohol consumption. There are a number of old and new studies that proved the superiority of PEth test over the other indirect blood alcohol markers. PEth exhibits high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for detecting active chronic excessive drinking behaviours.

Phosphatidylethanol (PETh) is a biomarker associated with ethanol consumption and is used to detect longer term alcohol exposure (up to 4 weeks). Ethyl Glucuronide and Ethyl Sulfate, Urine, Quantitative detects more common biomarkers and is used to detect alcohol exposure with a detection window of up to 5 days. If a shorter detection window is acceptable, these biomarkers provide a faster turnaround time and reduced cost.