Morphine may have a role in telomere shortening

Morphine/heroin may increase oxidative stress in drug-dependent persons. The imbalance between oxidative stress and antioxidant defense mechanisms can accelerate the shortening of telomere length. This article reports two sets of data; comparison of relative telomere length between heroin-dependent patients and healthy control group, as well as, investigation of the effect of morphine on the relative telomere length of human SH-SY5Y cells treated by morphine. Study participants were composed of 163 heroin-dependent patients and 166 unrelated healthy controls. SH-SY5Y cells were treated with (5 μM) morphine hydrochloride and incubated for 40 and 60 days. The relative telomere length was calculated as the T/S (telomere/single-copy gene) ratio using 36B4 as a reference for each sample, using quantitative real-time PCR. The mean (± SE) value of relative telomere length was 4.81 ± 0.21 and 6.38 ± 0.23 in leukocytes of heroin-dependent and control groups, respectively. The telomere length was significantly decreased in heroin-dependent participants (t = 4.97; df = 327; P < 0.0001). The relative telomere length in cells treated with morphine for 60 days was 4.50 ± 0.14 and in untreated cells was 5.75 ± 0.08. The difference was highly significant (t  =  7.68; df = 4; P = 0.002). Our present findings indicate that morphine and dependency on heroin are significantly associated with shorter telomeres. The present findings may help to explain some of the adverse effects of drug dependency on health such as accelerating biologic processes related to aging.