FYN Tyrosine Kinase Gene Polymorphisms in Alcohol-Dependent Korean Patients

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a common disease with a high economic cost. The glutamate cell signaling pathway associated with alcohol has been reported to be one of the main pathologies of AUD. Previous studies have suggested that FYN, which is known to control NMDA glutamate receptor function through phosphorylation, might be associated with AUD.

The present study included 354 subjects in the alcohol-dependent group and 139 subjects in the control group. The alcohol-dependent group was recruited from five university hospitals and a psychiatric hospital, and the control group was recruited from people who visited the university hospital for routine medical checkups in Korea. FYN gene single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) were selected based on SNP databases and previous studies of the FYN gene. Ten SNPs were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism techniques.

GG genotypes and G allele frequencies of rs1058134 in male AUD patients were significantly lower than in controls (p = 0.003). AA genotypes and A allele frequencies of rs12191154 in female AUD patients were significantly lower than in controls (p < 0.001, p = 0.003). In female AUD patients, AA genotypes and A allele frequencies of rs9387025 were significantly higher than in controls (p = 0.003).

These findings suggest that the FYN gene may be a candidate gene for AUD. This may help for the planning of further studies to determine the function of each SNP and the exact relationship between the FYN gene and AUD.