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. 2019 Apr;20(5):331-341.
doi: 10.2217/pgs-2018-0137. Epub 2019 Apr 15.

VMAT2 gene (SLC18A2) variants associated with a greater risk for developing opioid dependence

Matthew Randesi  1 , Wim van den Brink  2 , Orna Levran  1 , Peter Blanken  2   3 , Jan M van Ree  4 , Jurg Ott  5 , Mary Jeanne Kreek  1
Affiliations

VMAT2 gene (SLC18A2) variants associated with a greater risk for developing opioid dependence

Matthew Randesi et al. Pharmacogenomics. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Aim: To determine if selected serotonergic and noradrenergic gene variants are associated with heroin addiction. Subjects & methods: A total of 126 variants in 19 genes in subjects with Dutch European ancestry from The Netherlands. Subjects included 281 opioid-dependent volunteers in methadone maintenance or heroin-assisted treatment, 163 opioid-exposed but not opioid-dependent volunteers who have been using illicit opioids but never became opioid-dependent and 153 healthy controls. Results: Nominal associations were indicated for 20 variants in six genes including an experiment-wise significant association from the combined effect of three SLC18A2 SNPs (rs363332, rs363334 and rs363338) with heroin dependence (pfinal = 0.047). Conclusion: Further studies are warranted to confirm and elucidate the role of these variants in the vulnerability to opioid addiction.

Keywords: VMAT2; association study; case–control; exposed but not dependent; heroin dependence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was supported by grants from the Dr Miriam and Sheldon G Adelson Medical Research Foundation (MJK), a special supplement to National Institutes of Health grant R01-DA012848 (MJK) and a grant from The Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of thismanuscript.

Figures

<b>Figure 1.</b>
Figure 1.. Linkage disequilibrium of SLC18A2 SNPs.
The pairwise correlation between SNPs measured as r2 (top panel) and D’ (bottom panel). The values are shown (×100) in each box. The color scheme indicates the magnitude of the value where the darker the color indicates the greater LD. When the LD value is equal to 1.0 the box is empty. LD: Linkage disequilibrium.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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