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. 2023 Mar 31:14:1126615.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1126615. eCollection 2023.

Exploring the association of addiction-related genetic factors with non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents

Zhichao Guo  1 , Yilin Liu  1 , Chengjuan Wang  2 , Shujun Li  1 , Lei Yu  1 , Wenzhi Wu  1 , Xu You  3 , Yunqiao Zhang  3 , Zhaowei Teng  1 , Yong Zeng  1
Affiliations

Exploring the association of addiction-related genetic factors with non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents

Zhichao Guo et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is self-injurious behavior without suicidal intent commonly seen in the adolescent population and poses a serious threat to the life safety of adolescents. Related researches suggest a possible correlation between addiction and the occurrence of NSSI. This study aimed to explore the correlation between addiction and NSSI from a molecular biological perspective by analyzing the differential expression of addiction-related genes in NSSI patients.

Methods: (1) The association between addiction and non-suicidal self-injury in a Chinese adolescent population was verified with the help of questionnaires on substance and non-substance addictions and non-suicidal self-injury among 1,329 adolescents in China, (2) Screening for key genes associated with addiction by bioinformatics analysis, and (3) RT-qPCR experiment was performed to validate key genes and Receiver Operating Characteristic curves were plotted for target genes.

Results: (1) Substance and non-substance addictions were all significantly correlated with non-suicidal self-injury, (2) Four target genes: SERPINA3, SLC14A1, RPS6 and RPS3A were screened by bioinformatics technique, and (3) Relative quantitative analysis by RT-qPCR revealed that the expression levels of SLC14A1 (p < 0.01), RPS6 (p < 0.05) and RPS3A (p < 0.01) were significantly higher in NSSI patients than in healthy controls.

Conclusion: (1) The significant association between addiction and NSSI exists in the Chinese adolescent population and (2) Addiction-related genes SLC14A1, RPS6, and RPS3A are differentially expressed in adolescents with NSSI. The genes have the potential to become biological markers for the diagnosis of NSSI.

Keywords: addiction; bioinformatics; biomarker; genes; non-suicidal self-injury.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Differentially expressed genes for alcohol addiction in the GSE44456 dataset, bounded by p < 0.05, with red dots representing upregulated genes (A); Differentially expressed genes associated with smoking addiction in the GSE20568 dataset (B).
Figure 2
Figure 2
GO function enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes: (A) Biological Process (BP), (B) Molecular Function (MF), and (C) Cellular Component (CC).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top scoring important modules in the PPI network (A) and the first 10 central genes (B). Node color shows rank (the darker the color, the higher the rank).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Expression levels of SLC14A1/RPS6/RPS3A in peripheral blood of NSSI patient group and healthy control group: (A) SLC14A1, (B) RPS3A, and (C) RPS6. *p<0.05, **p<0.01.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves of SLC14A1/ RPS6/RPS3A.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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