| Autor: |
Cozzoli D; Associazione Comunità Emmanuel ETS, Via don Bosco 16, 73100 Lecce, Italy., Daponte A; Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70124 Bari, Italy., De Fazio S; Struttura Sovradistrettuale Dipendenze Patologiche ASL Brindisi, Via Santa Teresa, 72100 Brindisi, Italy., Ariano V; Dipartimento Dipendenze Patologiche, ASL Taranto, Via Ancona, 70100 Taranto, Italy., Quaranta MR; SERD Martina Franca, ASL Taranto, Via Orazio Flacco 127, 74015 Martina Franca, Italy., Leone V; Associazione Comunità Emmanuel ETS, Via don Bosco 16, 73100 Lecce, Italy., Ostuni A; U.O. Medicina Trasfusionale AOU Policlinico Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare, 70125 Bari, Italy., Casanova M; U.O. Medicina Trasfusionale AOU Policlinico Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare, 70125 Bari, Italy., Catacchio CR; Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70124 Bari, Italy., Ventura M; Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70124 Bari, Italy., Montinaro F; Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70124 Bari, Italy.; Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, 51010 Tartu, Estonia. |
| Abstrakt: |
Drug addiction, or substance use disorder (SUD), is a chronic, relapsing disorder in which compulsive drug-seeking and drug-taking behaviour persist despite serious negative consequences. Drug abuse represents a problem that deserves great attention from a social point of view, and focuses on the importance of genetic studies to help in understanding the genetic basis of addiction and its medical treatment. Despite the complexity of drug addiction disorders, and the high number of environmental variables playing a role in the onset, recurrence, and duration of the symptoms, several studies have highlighted the non-negligible role of genetics, as demonstrated by heritability and genome-wide association studies. A correlation between the relative risk of addiction to specific substances and heritability has been recently observed, suggesting that neurobiological mechanisms may be, at least in part, inherited. All these observations point towards a scenario where the core neurobiological factors of addiction, involving the reward system, impulsivity, compulsivity, stress, and anxiety response, are transmitted, and therefore, genes and mutations underlying their variation might be detected. In the last few years, the development of new and more efficient sequencing technologies has paved the way for large-scale studies in searching for genetic and epigenetic factors affecting drug addiction disorders and their treatments. These studies have been crucial to pinpoint single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes that affect the reaction to medical treatments. This is critically important to identify pharmacogenomic approaches for substance use disorder, such as OPRM1 SNPs and methadone required doses for maintenance treatment (MMT). Nevertheless, despite the promising results obtained by genome-wide association and pharmacogenomic studies, specific studies related to population genetics diversity are lacking, undermining the overall applicability of the preliminary findings, and thus potentially affecting the portability and the accuracy of the genetic studies. In this review, focusing on cannabis, cocaine and heroin use, we report the state-of-the-art genomics and pharmacogenomics of SUDs, and the possible future perspectives related to medical treatment response in people that ask for assistance in solving drug-related problems. |
