Research articlePolymorphisms in the 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 3B gene are associated with heroin dependence in the Chinese Han population

- We investigated the associations between 7 SNPs of HTR3B and heroin dependence.
- Two new SNPs are significantly associated with heroin dependence.
- HTR3B is a susceptibility gene for heroin dependence in Chinese Han population.

Previous studies suggested that the 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 3B (HTR3B) is involved in heroin dependence by modulating dopamine (DA) release in the reward pathway and that the genetic polymorphisms in HTR3B play plausible role in modulating the risk of developing heroin addiction. To identify markers that contribute to the genetic susceptibility to heroin dependence, we examined the potential associations between heroin dependence and 7 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the HTR3B gene using multiplex SNaPshot technology in a Chinese Han population. Participants included 418 heroin-dependent subjects and 422 healthy controls. The results suggested that the genotype distribution of HTR3B rs1176746 and rs1185027 were significantly different between heroin dependent subjects and healthy controls (both p = 0.004). The frequency of the GG of rs1176746 and AA of rs1185027 genotype in heroin-dependent subjects were significantly higher than that of healthy controls, while the GA of rs1176746 and AT of rs1185027 genotype distributions were much lower. Another SNP, rs10789970, showed a nominally significant p-value in the genotype distribution between heroin dependent subjects and controls (p = 0.022). These findings indicate the important role of HTR3B polymorphisms in heroin dependence among the Chinese Han population and provide valuable information for further genetic and neurobiological investigations of heroin dependence.