Genetic association analyses and meta-analysis of Dynorphin-Kappa Opioid system potential functional variants with heroin dependence

Publication date: Available online 20 August 2018Source: Neuroscience LettersAuthor(s): Ji Yuanyuan, Su Rui, Tang hua, Cui Jingjing, Deji Cuola, Shi Yuhui, Wei ShuguangAbstractProdynorphin (PDYN) binds to k-opioid receptors (KOPr; encoded by OPRK1) and is known to regulate dopaminergic tone, making this system important for drugs addiction. Dynorphin (Dyn)/KORr system are powerful effectors of stress-induced alterations in reward processing and dysphoric states. Thus, We identified 11 potential functional SNPs and one variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) in this system, performed a case-control association analysis, investigated particular disease phenotypes, assessed the joint effect of variants in two genes, carried out a meta-analysis to analyze the association between this VNTR and Heroin dependence (HD) risk. Eleven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped using SNaPshot SNP technology. Participants included 566 healthy controls and 541 patients with HD. We found that PDYN polymorphisms modulate the susceptibility to HD. An increased risk of HD was significantly associated with H alleles of PDYN VNTR (χ2 = 10.824, p = 0.001, OR = 1.419, 95% CI = 1.151-1.748). In addition, the results revealed the patients with the HH genotype showed greater number of withdrawal instances (F(2,538)=7.987, p=0.0004) compared to the patients with the LL genotype. The Meta-analysis showed the pooled effect of the H allele at this locus is a risk factor for HD in Chinese Han....
Source: Neuroscience Letters - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research