NERVE GROWTH FACTOR GENE POLYMORPHISMS MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH HEROIN DEPENDENCE IN WOMEN BUT DO NOT MEDIATE IMPULSIVITY AND SPECIFIC PERSONALITY TRAITS

Abstract Objective Heroin use disorder (HUD) is a complex disease with substantial genetic contribution, and patients with HUD have been associated with traits of impulsivity. Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophic factor and may mediate the reward processes in HUD. We performed this study to investigate whether NGF gene polymorphisms are associated with the occurrence of HUD and the impulsive personality traits of patients with HUD. Method We selected a homogeneous Han Chinese population to overcome possible confounding effects of population. For the study, 1364 participants (831 HUD patients and 533 healthy controls) were recruited. In addition, 185 female patients with HUD completed the Chinese version of Barratt Impulsiveness Scale Version 11 (BIS-11) to assess impulsive personality traits for subsequent analysis. Results Three polymorphisms exhibited a difference in allele and genotype frequency between HUD patients and controls (p = 0.035 for rs2254527; p = 0.005 for rs6678788; p = 0.006 for rs7523654), especially in the female subgroup. In haplotype analysis, four associations were found in the female subgroup (p = 0.003 for the T-T-A haplotype p = 0.002 for the C-C-A haplotype in block 1; p = 0.011 for the T-T haplotype, and p = 0.009 for C-T haplotypes in block 2), but not in the male subgroup. However, there was no significant association between the selected NGF polymorphisms and BIS scores in female patients with HUD. Conclusion The NGF gene may contribute to the risk in the development of female HUD, but not mediate the relationship between impulsive personality traits and HUD in the female population.