Association of GABA-B receptor genes polymorphisms with smoking measures in individuals with alcohol use disorder

Authors

• AN Le
• MR Lee
• ML Schwandt
• LA Farinelli
• F Akhlaghi
• L Leggio

Abstract

GABAergic signaling plays a key role in several neurobiological processes and dysfunction of this system has been implicated in the pathophysiology of addictions. Both preclinical and clinical work supports a role of the GABA-B receptor in alcohol drinking as well as in smoking. However, few genetic studies have investigated the role of this receptor in addictive behaviors. In this study, a case-control analysis was performed on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the GABA-B receptor subunit 1 (GABBR1) and 2 (GABBR2) genes. Cases (N = 810) comprised individuals with lifetime diagnosis of alcohol dependence (AD), while controls (N = 442) had no past or current AD. A total number of 135 SNPs (GABBR1=8, GABBR2=127) were analyzed using PLINK v1.07. We also examined the effect of these SNPs on drinking and smoking measures in current AD individuals using linear regressions. After correction for multiple testing, there were no significant differences between the two groups in the case-control analysis. We found that the minor allele of 6 SNPs on GABBR2 (rs2779552, rs2779558, rs2779562, rs2779572, rs7857375, rs944761) were significantly associated with lower scores on Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (p

Scientific Focus Area: Neuroscience

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