Meng Chao, Lan Jie, Wang Youxin, Song Manshu, Gao Xuan, Ran Longjin, Moira Sim, Wang Wei
College of Life Science, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Genet Test Mol Biomarkers. 2012 Sep;16(9):1044-50. doi: 10.1089/gtmb.2012.0016. Epub 2012 Aug 2.
The study aims at evaluating the association between brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene polymorphisms and heroin-dependent patients in the Chinese population. Three polymorphisms of the BDNF-gene (rs10835210, rs16917234, and rs6265) in 486 heroin-dependent patients and in 226 healthy controls were genotyped for analyzing the association of these polymorphisms with age of onset of heroin dependence. We defined the healthy cases as "unknown phenotype" and used the endophenotype (behavior traits) to stratify the heroin dependents group on the basis of self-reporting traits for examining the association between BDNF polymorphisms (rs10835210, rs16917234, and rs6265) and heroin dependence.
Allelic distributions of BDNF gene polymorphisms did not differ significantly between heroin-dependent patients and controls. However, we found that the AA carriers of BDNF rs6265 had an earlier onset of heroin dependence and a clearer tendency of family history of heroin-dependent than GG carriers after controlling behavior characteristics across rs6265 genotypes.
Our findings suggested that the BDNF genetic polymorphism (rs6265) may have effects on the age of onset of heroin dependence among the Chinese population. The BDNF gene could contribute to vulnerabilities to heroin dependence.
本研究旨在评估中国人群中脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）基因多态性与海洛因依赖患者之间的关联。对486例海洛因依赖患者和226例健康对照者的BDNF基因的三个多态性位点（rs10835210、rs16917234和rs6265）进行基因分型，以分析这些多态性与海洛因依赖发病年龄的关联。我们将健康对照定义为“未知表型”，并根据自我报告的特征，利用内表型（行为特征）对海洛因依赖组进行分层，以研究BDNF多态性位点（rs10835210、rs16917234和rs6265）与海洛因依赖之间的关联。
海洛因依赖患者与对照组之间BDNF基因多态性的等位基因分布无显著差异。然而，我们发现，在控制rs6265基因型的行为特征后，BDNF rs6265的AA携带者比GG携带者有更早的海洛因依赖发病年龄和更明显的海洛因依赖家族史倾向。
我们的研究结果表明，BDNF基因多态性（rs6265）可能对中国人群中海洛因依赖的发病年龄有影响。BDNF基因可能导致个体对海洛因依赖的易感性。
