The Effect of OPRM1 rs648893 Gene Polymorphism on Opioid Addiction in an Iranian population in Zabol: A Case-Control Study

Opioid addiction (OA) is a neurologically life-threatening challenge associated with socioeconomic and health concerns for individuals and society. The addictive drugs trigger neuromodulators and neurotransmitters through the opioid receptors and corresponding endogenous peptide ligands. In addition, drug addiction is reportedly related to the mu-opioid receptor (OPRM1) encoding gene and its variants. According to the role of the rs648893 polymorphism of the OPRM1 gene in numerous disorders, it has been suggested as a candidate associated with drug addiction. The present case-control study was conducted to evaluate the role of OPRM1 rs648893 polymorphism in the OA risk.

To this end, the rs648893 polymorphism was genotyped by tetra amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction among 160 Iranian subjects consisting of 105 OA cases and 155 controls.

According to our findings, there was no significant association between OA and the OPRM1 rs648893 gene polymorphism. Moreover, a marginally insignificant difference was found between OA cases and controls in accordance with the allelic frequencies (P = 0.05)

In general, our results reported no association between OPRM1 rs648893 gene polymorphism and OA although further research among various ethnicities with larger sample sizes is needed to draw a definite conclusion on the association of rs648893 polymorphism and other OPRM1 intronic variants with opioid and other addictions.