Abstract
Heroin addiction is a chronic, complex disease, often accompanied by other concomitant disorders, which may encumber effective prevention and treatment. To explore the differences in expression profiles of serum proteins in control and heroin addicts, we used two-dimensional electrophoresis coupled to MALDI-TOF/TOF, and identified 4 proteins of interest. Following validation of the increase in serum transthyretin, we assessed serum levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4), and observed a robust increase in T4 in heroin addicts compared to controls. In addition, we performed haptoglobin (Hp) phenotyping, and showed that the frequency of Hp0 (serum devoid of haptoglobin) was significantly higher in heroin addicts. Altogether, these findings indicated that: (1) thyroid hormone imbalance is present in heroin addicts; (2) anhaptoglobinemia (Hp0) might a risk factor or a deleterious effect of heroin abuse.
Highlights
Heroin is the most prevalent drug of abuse in China, according to World Drug Report 2013 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
We performed haptoglobin phenotyping, and showed, for the first time, that patient serum devoid of haptoglobin positively correlated with heroin dependence. These findings indicate that thyroid hormone balance is disrupted in heroin addicts, and that anhaptoglobinemia might be a genetic risk factor or a pathological consequence of the disease, which could provide clues for the prevention or treatment of heroin addiction
It is widely believed that the mesolimbic dopamine pathway plays a pivotal role in drug reward and addiction, and that dopamine release is central to the reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse [33]
Summary
Heroin is the most prevalent drug of abuse in China, according to World Drug Report 2013 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). A number of genes have been identified accounting for either risk of or protection from developing addiction toward heroin [3,4,5,6,7,8,9] These genetic underpinnings have not been exploited for clinical benefit. We performed haptoglobin phenotyping, and showed, for the first time, that patient serum devoid of haptoglobin (anhaptoglobinemia) positively correlated with heroin dependence These findings indicate that thyroid hormone balance is disrupted in heroin addicts, and that anhaptoglobinemia might be a genetic risk factor or a pathological consequence of the disease, which could provide clues for the prevention or treatment of heroin addiction
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