Methadone is a medication valued for its effectiveness in the treatment of heroin addiction; however, many fatal poisonings associated with its use have been reported over the years. We have examined the association between CYP2B6 and micro-opioid receptor (OPRM1) gene variations and apparent susceptibility to methadone poisoning. Genomic DNA was extracted from postmortem whole blood of 40 indi...

We examined 13 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning the coding region of the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1), among 382 European Americans (EAs) affected with substance dependence [alcohol dependence (AD) and/or drug dependence (DD)] and 338 EA healthy controls. These SNPs delineated two haplotype blocks. Genotype distributions for all SNPs were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) in...

BACKGROUND Although a number of studies have investigated the association of the OPRM1 A118G polymorphism with pain response, a consensus has not yet been reached. METHODS The authors searched PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library to identify gene-association studies that explored the impact of the OPRM1 A118G polymorphism on postoperative opioid requirements through July 2013. Two evaluat...

Genetic variation of the A118G polymorphism of the μ-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) predicts individual sensitivity to social rejection and fMRI activation during simulated social rejection in adults, while data on these relationships during childhood are lacking. We investigated whether this polymorphism predicts childhood withdrawal - a predictor of sensitivity to social rejection -, and the fa...

Correspondence: Shailendra Kapoor 2300 E Cary St Richmond, VA 23223, USA Tel +1 804 2342345 Fax +1 804 3454561 Email [email protected] To the editor The recent article by Villesen et al in a recent issue of your journal was most interesting. Recent studies show that the potency of morphine in efficacious pain control may be influenced greatly by polymorphisms of certain genes. For inst...

BACKGROUND Endogenous opioids and striatal dopamine have been implicated in cue-induced alcohol craving and have been hypothesized to play a role in goal-directed, as opposed to habitual, alcohol use. This initial study examines dorsal and ventral striatal functional connectivity during alcohol-cue processing as a function of the A118G single-nucleotide polymorphism of the mu-opioid receptor (O...

This study determined the effects of acute treatment with morphine on the expression of the Oprm1, Oprk1, and Oprd1 genes (which encode μ, κ, and δ receptors, respectively) in the striatum, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal gray (PAG) in ovariectomized female rats treated with estrogen. Ovariectomized female rats were divided into five equal groups. Two groups received estrogen (50 µg/kg, 54 h b...

OBJECTIVE Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) from in utero opioid exposure is highly variable with genetic factors appearing to play an important role. Epigenetic changes in cytosine:guanine (CpG) dinucleotide methylation can occur after drug exposure and may help to explain NAS variability. We correlated DNA methylation levels in the mu-opioid receptor (OPRM1) promoter in opioid-exposed infant...

The generation of potent opioid analgesics that lack the side effects of traditional opioids may be possible by targeting truncated splice variants of the μ-opioid receptor. μ-Opioids act through GPCRs that are generated from the Oprm1 gene, which undergoes extensive alternative splicing. The most abundant set of Oprm1 variants encode classical full-length 7 transmembrane domain (7TM) μ-opioid ...