Lack of Association between Human µ-Opioid Receptor (<em>OPRM1</em>) Gene Polymorphisms and Heroin Addiction in A Sample of Southeast Iranian Population

Abstract

It has been proposed that genetic factors account for 30%–50% of the risk for cocaine and heroin addiction. The present study was aimed to find out the impact of µ-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) rs1799971 A > G and rs9479757 polymorphisms on heroin dependence in a sample of southeast Iranian population. This case-control study was done on 123 heroin addicts and 140 non-addicts Iranian male. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood cells using salting out method. Genotyping of OPRM1 rs1799971 and rs9479757 polymorphisms were performed using PCR-RFLP method. Overall, our results did not support an association between OPRM1 variants and risk of heroin dependence in a sample of southeast Iranian population. Further studies with larges sample sizes and different ethnicities are required to validate our findings.

Keywords

• OPRM1
• polymorphism
• addiction
• heroin