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. 2011 Jan 27;6(1):e16002.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016002.

The nuclear transcription factor PKNOX2 is a candidate gene for substance dependence in European-origin women

Xiang Chen  1 , Kelly Cho, Burton H Singer, Heping Zhang
Affiliations

The nuclear transcription factor PKNOX2 is a candidate gene for substance dependence in European-origin women

Xiang Chen et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Substance dependence or addiction is a complex environmental and genetic disorder that results in serious health and socio-economic consequences. Multiple substance dependence categories together, rather than any one individual addiction outcome, may explain the genetic variability of such disorder. In our study, we defined a composite substance dependence phenotype derived from six individual diagnoses: addiction to nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, opiates or other drugs as a whole. Using data from several genomewide case-control studies, we identified a strong (Odds ratio = 1.77) and significant (p-value = 7E-8) association signal with a novel gene, PBX/knotted 1 homeobox 2 (PKNOX2), on chromosome 11 with the composite phenotype in European-origin women. The association signal is not as significant when individual outcomes for addiction are considered, or in males or African-origin population. Our findings underscore the importance of considering multiple addiction types and the importance of considering population and gender stratification when analyzing data with heterogeneous population.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Number of substance dependent subjects according to DSM-IV for the top three addiction categories: alcohol (A), nicotine (N) and cocaine (C).
(i) is based on the overall sample and (ii) is based on the White women subset.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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