Involvement of the mu-opioid receptor gene polymorphism A118G in the efficacy of detoxification of alcohol dependent patients

Introduction: The A118G (rs 1799971) polymorphism in the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) has been reported to be associated with alcohol addiction.

Methods: In this study 109 patients diagnosed with alcohol dependence in accordance with DMS-IV criteria and 95 healthy subjects were enrolled and everyone has been genotyped.

Results: The percentage of alcoholic patients with higher than normal gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) levels significantly decreased after six months of standard detoxification treatment, both in patients with A/A genotype and in the other ones with A/G genotype. However, the percentage of alcohol dependent patients with the A/A genotype recorded a slight decrease of the GGT and the mean corpuscolar volume of erythrocytes (MCV) combination marker after six months of therapy (30% vs 12%), while subjects with the A/G genotype showed no variation.

Conclusion: This finding suggests that alcohol dependent patients with the A/A genotype could have a faster restoration of their liver function than those ones with the A/G genotype: it might be possible that the presence of G allele confers on these patients a reduced ability in abstaining from drinking alcohol.