Significant association of mu-opioid receptor 1 haplotype with tobacco smoking in healthy control subjects but not in patients with schizophrenia and alcohol dependence

Tobacco smoking is highly prevalent in patients with schizophrenia and alcohol dependence. The underlying neurobiology of nicotine addiction is complex. Rewarding effects of nicotine from cigarettes are associated, among others, with mu-opioid receptors encoded by the OPRM1 gene. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between two OPRM1 gene polymorphisms, rs1799971 and rs510769, and tobacco smoking in Caucasian patients with schizophrenia, alcohol dependence, and healthy control subjects. The study included 1058 Caucasians (277 patients with schizophrenia, 359 patients with alcohol dependence, and 422 healthy control subjects), subdivided according to the nicotine dependence into smokers (i.e. current smokers) and non-smokers. A significant association was found between the GC haplotype (OPRM1 rs1799971 and rs510769) and smoking in healthy controls, but not in patients with schizophrenia and alcohol dependence. A nominal association was detected in all cases/controls, but this significance did not survive the correction for the multiple testing. This is the first study to reveal that nicotine dependence is associated with the GC haplotype of the OPRM1 rs1799971 and rs510769 in all subjects or specifically in healthy controls. These results did not confirm the strong connection between OPRM1 polymorphisms and nicotine dependence in schizophrenia or alcohol dependence.

Keywords: Non-smokers; Oprm1; Rs1799971; Rs510769; Smokers.