According to last findings, one of the most commonly studied polymorphisms in psychiatry-Taq1A is located in the ANNK1 (Ankyrin Repeat and Kinase Domain containing 1) gene, not in the dopamine receptor 2 (DRD2) gene. This polymorphism has been extensively studied in relation to alcohol, nicotine and drugs addiction, eating disorders, ADHD, schizophrenia and pharmacogenetics. The ANKK1 gene cont...

BACKGROUND There is an extensive and inconsistent literature on the association of the dopamine D2 receptor gene (DRD2) with alcohol dependence. Conflicting results have been attributed to differences in the severity of the alcohol dependence phenotype across studies, failure to exclude related disorders from comparison groups, and artifacts of population-stratification. Recently the genetic po...

Obesity is a multifactorial disease caused by the interaction between genotype and environment, and it is considered to be a type of addictive alteration. The A1 allele of the DRD2/ANKK1-TaqIA gene has been associated with addictive disorders, with obesity and with the performance in executive functions. The 7 repeat allele of the DRD4 gene has likewise been associated with the performance in e...

BACKGROUND As we known, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) helps to prevent the relapse of drug addiction. However, the scientific basis of TCM remains unclear because of limitations of current reductionist approaches. We aimed to explore the possible mechanism of how ANKK1 TaqIA (A1/A2) [rs1800497(T/C)] affects the relapse of opioid addiction on the perspective of Chinese traditional medicine....

Complex cognitive tasks such as visual working memory (WM) involve networks of interacting brain regions. Several neurotransmitters, including an appropriate dopamine concentration, are important for WM performance. A number of gene polymorphisms are associated with individual differences in cognitive task performance. COMT, for example, encodes catechol-o-methyl transferase the enzyme primaril...

BACKGROUND Genetic factors are important in the pathogenesis of Tourette syndrome (TS). Notably, Dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) gene has been suggested as a possible candidate gene for this disorder. Several studies have demonstrated that DRD2/ANKK1 TaqIA polymorphism is associated with an increased risk of developing TS. However, past results remain conflicting. We addressed this controversy by p...

INTRODUCTION Ankyrin repeat and kinase domain containing I (ANKK1) and dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) genes have been associated with psychopathic traits in clinical samples. On the other hand, individuals high in psychopathy show reduced affective priming and deficits in facial expression recognition. We have hypothesized that these emotion-related cognitive phenomena are associated with Taq IA (...

AIMS Modulation of dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) activity affects insulin secretion in both rodents and isolated pancreatic β-cells. We hypothesized that single nucleotide polymorphisms in the DRD2/ANKK1 locus may affect susceptibility to type 2 diabetes in humans. METHODS Four potentially functional variants in the coding region of the DRD2/ANKK1 locus (rs1079597, rs6275, rs6277, rs1800497) we...

There have been many conflicting reports concerning the association of the DRD2 locus with alcohol dependence (AD). To investigate whether these findings could be reconciled by considering the genomic region of DRD2 in greater detail, we conducted two separate association studies of AD in 1220 European-American subjects using family-based (488 subjects) and case-control (318 cases and 414 contr...

Language impairment (LI) and reading disability (RD) are common pediatric neurobehavioral disorders that frequently co-occur, suggesting they share etiological determinants. Recently, our group identified prenatal nicotine exposure as a factor for RD and poor reading performance. Using smoking questionnaire and language data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, we first det...