Population-based case-control study of DRD2 gene polymorphisms and alcoholism

Abstract

Several independent lines of evidence for genetic contributions to vulnerability to alcoholism exist. Dopamine is thought to play a major role in the mechanism of reward and reinforcement in response to alcohol. D2 Dopamine Receptor (DRD2) gene has been among the stronger candidate genes implicated in alcoholism. In this study, alcohol use was assessed in 196 randomly selected Kota individuals of Nilgiri Hills, South India. Six DRD2 SNPs were assessed in 81 individuals with alcoholism and 151 controls to evaluate the association between Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and alcoholism. Of the three models (dominant, recessive and additive) tested for association between alcoholism and DRD2 SNPs, only the additive model shows association for three loci (rs1116313, TaqID and rs2734835). Of six studied polymorphisms, five are in strong linkage disequilibrium forming onesingle haplotype block. Though the global haplotype analysis with these five SNPs was not significant, haplotype analysis using all six SNPs yielded a global P value of .033, even after adjusting for age. These findings support the importance of dopamine receptor gene polymorphisms in alcoholism. Further studies to replicate these findings in different populations are needed to confirm these results.