The frequency of DRD2 rs1076560 and OPRM1 rs1799971 in substance use disorder patients from the United Arab Emirates

Hiba Alblooshi; Gary Hulse; Wael Osman; Ahmed El Kashef; Mansour Shawky; Hamad Al Ghaferi; Habiba Al Safar; Guan K Tay

doi:10.1186/s12991-018-0192-4

The frequency of DRD2 rs1076560 and OPRM1 rs1799971 in substance use disorder patients from the United Arab Emirates

Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2018 Jun 1:17:22. doi: 10.1186/s12991-018-0192-4. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Hiba Alblooshi^{1

2}, Gary Hulse^{2

3}, Wael Osman⁴, Ahmed El Kashef⁵, Mansour Shawky⁵, Hamad Al Ghaferi⁵, Habiba Al Safar^{4

6}, Guan K Tay^{2

3

4

6}

Affiliations

¹ 1School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA Australia.
² 2School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA Australia.
³ 3School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA Australia.
⁴ 4Center of Biotechnology, Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, PO Box 1227788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
⁵ United Arab Emirates National Rehabilitation Center, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
⁶ 6Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

Background: Dopaminergic and opioid systems are involved in mediating drug reward and reinforcement of various types of substances including psychoactive compounds. Genes of both systems have been candidate for investigation for associations with substance use disorder (SUD) in various populations. This study is the first study to determine the allele frequency and the genetic association of the DRD2 rs1076560 SNP and OPRM1 rs1799971 SNP variants in clinically diagnosed patients with SUD from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Methods: A cross-sectional case-control cohort that consisted of 512 male subjects was studied. Two hundred and fifty patients with SUD receiving treatment at the UAE National Rehabilitation Center were compared to 262 controls with no prior history of mental health and SUD. DNA from each subject was extracted and genotyped using the TaqMan ^® SNP genotyping assay.

Results: There were no significant associations observed for DRD2 rs1076560 SNP, OPRM1 rs1799971 SNP, and combined genotypes of both SNPs in the SUD group.

Conclusion: Further research is required with refinements to the criteria of the clinical phenotypes. Genetic studies have to be expanded to include other variants of the gene, the interaction with other genes, and possible epigenetic relationships.

Keywords: DRD2 gene; OPRM1 gene; Substance use disorder; UAE; rs1076560; rs1799971.