Genetic variants associated with addictive behavior in Colombian addicted and non-addicted to heroin or cocaine
Objective: Determine the prevalence and compare some genetic markers involved in addictive behavior in agroup of addicts to derivative of coca (cocaine/crack) or heroin and a control group of non-addicted peoplematched for gender, age and ethnicity. Methods: A 120 addicts and 120 non-addicts Colombian male were surveyed and genotyped for 18 polymorphismof the OPRM1, DRD2, DRD4, SLC6A3, SLC6A4, ABCB1, DβH and CYP2B6 genes. For the identificationof alleles markers were used mini-sequencing and fragment multiplex PCR techniques; ethnicity of cases and controls was analyzed with 61 AIMs. Results: The age of onset use of heroin or coca derivatives (cocaine/crack) was 16.5±6 yrs and 99.2% of them consume several illicit drugs. It showed that controls and addicts belong to the same ethnic group. Significant differences between addicts and controls in relation to schooling, marital status, social security family history of substance abuse (p<0.001), Int8-VNTR SLC6A3 gene (p= 0.015) and SNP 3435C>T ABCB1 gene (p= 0.001)were found. Conclusion: The present results indicate that the VNTR-6R polymorphism of the gene SLC6A3 and the genotype 3435CC in the ABCB1 gene, are both associated with addictive behavior to heroin or cocaine.