• Elisha M Wachman, Marie J Hayes, Richard Sherva, Mark S Brown, Jonathan M Davis, Lindsay A Farrer, and David A Nielsen.
• Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center, 771 Albany Street, Dowling 4N 4109, Boston, MA 02118, United States. Electronic address: Elisha.Wachman@bmc.org.
• Drug Alcohol Depend. 2015 Oct 1; 155: 253-9.

BackgroundThere is significant variability in the severity of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) due to in-utero opioid exposure. We wanted to determine if single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in key candidate genes contribute to this variability.MethodsFull-term opioid-exposed newborns and their mothers (n=86 pairs) were studied. DNA was genotyped for 80 SNPs from 14 genes utilizing a custom designed microarray. The association of each SNP with NAS outcomes was evaluated.ResultsSNPs in two opioid receptor genes in the infants were associated with worse NAS severity: (1) The PNOC rs732636 A allele (OR=3.8, p=0.004) for treatment with 2 medications and a longer hospital stay (LOS) of 5.8 days (p=0.01), and (2) The OPRK1 rs702764 C allele (OR=4.1, p=0.003) for treatment with 2 medications. The OPRM1 rs1799971 G allele (β=-6.9 days, p=0.02) and COMT rs740603 A allele (β=-5.3 days, p=0.01) were associated with shorter LOS. The OPRD1 rs204076 A allele in the mothers was associated with a longer LOS by 6.6 days (p=0.008). Results were significant point-wise but did not meet the experiment-wide significance level.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that SNPs in opioid receptor and the PNOC genes are associated with NAS severity. However, further testing in a large sample is warranted. This has important implications for prenatal prediction and personalized treatment regimens for infants at highest risk for severe NAS.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

24 keywords...

hide…