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Updated: Jul 1, 2025

Large-Scale Multi-Omics Genome-Wide Association Studies Mo-GWAS: Guidelines for Sample Preparation and Normalization
Published on: July 27, 2021
SNP-based and haplotype-based genome-wide association on drug dependence in Han Chinese
Hanli Xu1, Yulin Kang2, Tingming Liang3
1College of Life Sciences and Bioengineering, School of Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100028, China.
Background:
Drug addiction is a serious problem worldwide and is influenced by genetic factors. The present study aimed to investigate the association between genetics and drug addiction among Han Chinese.
Methods:
A total of 1000 Chinese users of illicit drugs and 9693 healthy controls were enrolled and underwent single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based and haplotype-based association analyses via whole-genome genotyping.
Results:
Both single-SNP and haplotype tests revealed associations between illicit drug use and several immune-related genes in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region (SNP association: log10BF = 15.135, p = 1.054e-18; haplotype association: log10BF = 20.925, p = 2.065e-24). These genes may affect the risk of drug addiction via modulation of the neuroimmune system. The single-SNP test exclusively reported genome-wide significant associations between rs3782886 (SNP association: log10BF = 8.726, p = 4.842e-11) in BRAP and rs671 (SNP association: log10BF = 7.406, p = 9.333e-10) in ALDH2 and drug addiction. The haplotype test exclusively reported a genome-wide significant association (haplotype association: log10BF = 7.607, p = 3.342e-11) between a region with allelic heterogeneity on chromosome 22 and drug addiction, which may be involved in the pathway of vitamin B12 transport and metabolism, indicating a causal link between lower vitamin B12 levels and methamphetamine addiction.
Conclusions:
These findings provide new insights into risk-modeling and the prevention and treatment of methamphetamine and heroin dependence, which may further contribute to potential novel therapeutic approaches.
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