Combinación de genotipos DRD4 y DAT1 constituye importante factor de riesgo en miembros de familias de Santiago de Chile con déficit atencional / Combination of DRD4 and DAT1 genotypes is an important risk factor for attention déficit disorder with hyperactivity families living in Santiago, Chile

Background: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common, highly heritable neurobiological disorder of childhood onset, characterized by hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and/or inattentiveness. Aún: To search forpossible associations between dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) and dopamine transponer 1 (DATl) polymorphisms and ADHD in Chilean families. Material and methods: We extended a previous family-based discordant sib pair analysis that included 26 cases diagnosed according to DSM-IV entena and 25 controls (healthy siblings of cases), adding 14 cases and 11 controls. Results: Both loci, individually classified as homozygotes or heterozygotes for the DRD4 7-repeat and DATl 10-repeat alleles, did not exhibit genotype frequency differences between affected children and their healthy siblings. However, the simultaneous presence of both DRD4 7-repeat heterozygosity and DATl 10 allele homozygosity was significantly higher (22.5 percent) in cases (40), compared with (2.8 percent) unaffected siblings (36), with an odds-ratio of 10.16. Conclusions: The genotype combination DRD4/7 heterozygotes and DAT1/10 homozygotes is a high risk factors in Chilean families for ADHD. Increased density of dopamine transporters in ADHD brains, along with abundance of 7-repeat D4 receptors in prefrontal cortex, which is impaired in ADHD patients, make the observed gene-gene interaction worthy of studies to understand the functional basis ofADHD.

Genética de los desórdenes adictivos / Genetics of addictive disorders

Given the spectacular advances of genetics during the last five years, it seems appropriate to revisit the important subject of genetics of alcoholism and substance abuse. In recent studies alcohol abuse was shown to have an heredability of roughly 38 percent, whereas psychostimulant and opiate use exhibit heredabilities of 11 to 45 percent. The heredability of smoking was found to be around 50 percent. There is a strong comorbidity between alcoholism and smoking. More than 80 percent of alcoholics smoke cigarettes in the U.S.A.. Other genetic methods such as linkage analysis, allele sharing methods, association studies and analysis of inbred, transgenic and gene-knockout rodents, have partially agreed in showing that the 5HT-IB serotonin receptor and the DRDI, DRD2 and DRD4 dopamine receptors, as well as the dopamine transporter DAT, play an important role in behaviors related to alcoholism and substance abuse. Some neurochemical markers, as for example monoamine oxidase and adenylate cyclase have also been implicated in addictive disorders. The aldehyde dehydrogenase allele ALDH2*2 has a protective effect against alcoholism. Two whole genome linkage studies have shown linkage to chromosomal regions that are in the proximity of the DRD4 dopamine receptor, the GABA receptor gene cluster and the alcohol dehydrogenase gene cluster