• Brion S Maher, Vladimir I Vladimirov, Shawn J Latendresse, Dawn L Thiselton, Rebecca McNamee, Moonsu Kang, Tim B Bigdeli, Xiangning Chen, Brien P Riley, John M Hettema, Howard Chilcoat, Christian Heidbreder, Pierandrea Muglia, E Lenn Murrelle, Danielle M Dick, Fazil Aliev, Arpana Agrawal, Howard J Edenberg, John Kramer, John Nurnberger, Jay A Tischfield, Bernie Devlin, Robert E Ferrell, Galina P Kirillova, Ralph E Tarter, Kenneth S Kendler, and Michael M Vanyukov.
• Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA. bmaher@jhsph.edu
• Biol. Psychiatry. 2011 Sep 15; 70 (6): 519-27.

BackgroundThe liability to addiction has been shown to be highly genetically correlated across drug classes, suggesting nondrug-specific mechanisms.MethodsIn 757 subjects, we performed association analysis between 1536 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 106 candidate genes and a drug use disorder diagnosis (DUD).ResultsAssociations (p ≤ .0008) were detected with three SNPs in the arginine vasopressin 1A receptor gene, AVPR1A, with a gene-wise p value of 3 × 10(-5). Bioinformatic evidence points to a role for rs11174811 (microRNA binding site disruption) in AVPR1A function. Based on literature implicating AVPR1A in social bonding, we tested spousal satisfaction as a mediator of the association of rs11174811 with the DUD. Spousal satisfaction was significantly associated with DUD in males (p < .0001). The functional AVPR1A SNP, rs11174811, was associated with spousal satisfaction in males (p = .007). Spousal satisfaction was a significant mediator of the relationship between rs11174811 and DUD. We also present replication of the association in males between rs11174811 and substance use in one clinically ascertained (n = 1399) and one epidemiologic sample (n = 2231). The direction of the association is consistent across the clinically-ascertained samples but reversed in the epidemiologic sample. Lastly, we found a significant impact of rs11174811 genotype on AVPR1A expression in a postmortem brain sample.ConclusionsThe findings of this study call for expansion of research into the role of the arginine vasopressin and other neuropeptide system variation in DUD liability.Copyright © 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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