Risk Of Heroin Dependence Research Articles

Risk of Heroin Dependence in Newly Incident Heroin Users

This study assesses data from the 2002 to 2016 US National Survey on Drug Use and Health data sets to determine the percentage of newly incident heroin users who became heroin dependent.

Evaluation of prodynorphin gene polymorphisms and their association with heroin addiction in a sample of the southeast Iranian population.

Genetic factors are supposed to account for about 30-50% of the predisposition to cocaine and heroin addiction. This study aims at investigating the effect of rs2281285, rs2235749, rs910080 and 68bp VNTR polymorphisms of prodynorphin (PDYN) gene on heroin dependence risk in a sample of the southeast Iranian population. This case-control study was done on 216 heroin dependence subjects and 219 healthy subjects. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood cells using salting out method. Genotyping of PDYN polymorphisms were performed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or PCR-RFLP method. The findings showed that PDYN rs910080 T>C variant significantly increased the risk of heroin dependence (OR=7.91, 95%CI=3.36-18.61, P<0.0001, CC vs TT; OR=7.53, 95%CI=3.30-17.16, P<0.0001, CC vs TT+TC; OR=1.75, 95%CI=1.33-2.32, p<0.0001, C vs T). The rs2235749 C>T, rs2281285 A>G and 68bp VNTR variants of PDYN gene were not associated with heroin dependence. Altogether, our results provide an association between rs910080 polymorphism of PDYN gene and risk of heroin dependence in a sample of the southeast Iranian population.

Lack of Association between Human µ-Opioid Receptor (&lt;em&gt;OPRM1&lt;/em&gt;) Gene Polymorphisms and Heroin Addiction in A Sample of Southeast Iranian Population

It has been proposed that genetic factors account for 30%–50% of the risk for cocaine and heroin addiction. The present study was aimed to find out the impact of µ-opioid receptor gene ( OPRM1 ) rs1799971 A > G and rs9479757 polymorphisms on heroin dependence in a sample of southeast Iranian population. This case-control study was done on 123 heroin addicts and 140 non-addicts Iranian male. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood cells using salting out method. Genotyping of OPRM1 rs1799971 and rs9479757 polymorphisms were performed using PCR-RFLP method. Overall, our results did not support an association between OPRM1 variants and risk of heroin dependence in a sample of southeast Iranian population. Further studies with larges sample sizes and different ethnicities are required to validate our findings.

Association between dopamine D2 receptor gene polymorphisms and the risk of heroin dependence.

Heroin dependence is a chronic relapsing brain disease. Researchers have reported that the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) is involved in the development of opiate dependence. To identify markers that contribute to the genetic susceptibility to heroin addiction, we examined the potential association between heroin dependence and six polymorphisms of the DRD2 gene using the MassARRAY system. Three hundred and thirty-four patients with heroin dependence and 299 healthy controls participated in the research. Compared with the healthy controls, heroin-dependent patients had a significantly lower frequency of the AA genotype of rs6275 (P = 0.038), and a significantly higher frequency of the C allele of rs1125394 (P = 0.030). Statistically significant differences were observed in the genotypic and allelic frequencies of rs17115583 (P = 0.005 and P = 0.001, respectively) and rs1079597 (P = 0.03 and P = 0.02, respectively). Haplotype analysis revealed that the T-G-A (block 1) haplotype of the DRD2 gene conferred a protective effect (P = 0.020). These findings point to a role for DRD2 polymorphism in heroin dependence in the Chinese Han population, and may be informative for future genetic or neurobiological studies on heroin dependence.

Association between VNTR polymorphism in promoter region of prodynorphin (PDYN) gene and heroin dependence

Within the core promoter region of prodynorphin (PDYN), a 68-bp sequence was found to occur as a polymorphism element, either singular or as tandemly repeated two, three or four times. We report the sequence of a novel allele (5-repeats). Our study revealed the existence of an ancestral nucleotide (A) at 29th position of the VNTR in human. In total, 442 heroin addicts and 799 controls were included in this study. The present findings revealed a male-limited association between VNTR polymorphism and heroin dependence risk.

Allelic and genotypic associations of DRD2 Taq I A polymorphism with heroin dependence in Spanish subjects: a case control study

BackgroundConflicting associations with heroin dependence have been found involving the A1 allele of dopamine D2 receptor gene (DRD2) TaqI A polymorphism.MethodsWe compared two samples of unrelated Spanish individuals, all of European origin: 281 methadone-maintained heroin-dependent patients (207 males and 74 females) who frequently used non-opioid substances, and 145 control subjects (98 males and 47 females).ResultsThe A1-A1 genotype was detected in 7.1% of patients and 1.4% of controls (P = 0.011, odds ratio = 5.48, 95% CI 1.26–23.78). Although the A1 allele was not associated with heroin dependence in the entire sample, the frequency of A1 allele was higher in male patients than in male controls (24.4% vs. 16.3%, P = 0.024, odds ratio = 1.65, 95% CI 1.07–2.57). A logistic regression analysis showed an interaction between DRD2 alleles and gender (odds ratio = 1.77, 95% CI 1.15–2.70).ConclusionOur results indicate that, in Spanish individuals, genotypes of the DRD2 TaqI A polymorphism contribute to variations in the risk of heroin dependence, while single alleles contribute only in males.