Abuse of opioids is a significant national health problem. Pharmacogenetics, or personalized medicine, uses genotype information to predict phenotypic response (generally medication efficacy or safety; 18-19). The field of substance abuse is critically lagging behind in the application of pharmacogenetics for identifying individuals at increased risk for developing an opioid abuse disorder, or using personal genetic information to guide treatment. There is growing evidence to suggest a functional polymorphism (A118G) in the OPRM1 gene that codes for the mu opioid receptor (MOR) mediates individual response to opioid medications and has direct relevance for the development of opioid dependence (20-25). To date, no controlled human laboratory studies have examined the effect of the A118G SNP or OPRM1 gene on individual response to opioids. The next logical step is to evaluate whether differences in OPRM1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) drive individual response to opioid medications, which will help advance the field of substance abuse towards a pharmacogenetics approach to treatment, and establish a precedent for using controlled and well-validated laboratory methodology to investigate the genotype-phenotype interactions of opioids. We are proposing to conduct a laboratory study to evaluate whether the A118G SNP and additional OPRM1 tagging SNPs are associated with a variety of different MOR-mediated functions by evaluating subjective and physiological response to double-blind administration of an opioid medication. We will also evaluate the contribution of OPRM1 on other complex phenotypes related to the MOR activity or opioid dependence (e.g., pain sensitivity, the endogenous opioid-mediated cortisol stress response, and a delay discounting behavioral economic task). This study will be a between-group evaluation of genotype and gender, and a within-subject evaluation of opioid dose-response that will be conducted over 6 days in a residential clinical research unit. Participants (n=100) will receive double-blind doses of oral hydromorphone or placebo in a randomized, counter-balanced research design. Self-report, physiological, and salivary cortisol measures of drug effects will be collected at 6 time points following drug administration, and delay discounting will be administered at screening and during peak drug effects. We will also administer 2 different operant pain tasks that provide quantifiable estimates of pain sensitivity, under conditions of placebo or hydromorphone administration. This study will be the most controlled, rigorous, comprehensive examination of the A118G SNP and OPRM1 gene with opioid-mediated effects to date. We expect that genotype will be associated with several opioid-mediated effects, and that the results will advance our understanding of the contribution of OPRM1 to specific behavioral phenotypes. These data will advance the use of pharmacogenetics for substance abuse and use of laboratory testing for genotype-based hypotheses, and will contribute to the development of opioid dependence prevention strategies and interventions to treat comorbid pain and opioid dependence.
There are several differences in how people who use narcotic pain medications or heroin respond to those drugs, including whether they become addicted or whether the drugs help reduce their pain. Society could save a lot of money if researchers learned how to predict whether someone might become addicted to their medication, or what type of medication might be best to treat someone who is in pain. There are many reasons to believe that genetics may be partly responsible for these different effects, so this study will use a well- controlled laboratory design to evaluate whether a specific genetic difference may increase or decrease the effect of an opioid medication across a large group of people.
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