Methylphenidate treatment in adolescent rats with an attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder phenotype: cocaine addiction vulnerability and dopamine transporter function.
We genotyped the Int8 and 3'UTR variable number of tandem repeats of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1/SLC6A3), the TaqIA (rs1800497) and TaqIB (rs1079597) SNP polymorphisms within the dopamine receptor D2 gene and the 19-bp insertion/deletion and c.444G>A (rs1108580) polymorphisms of the dopamine β-hydroxylase gene (DBH) in a Spanish sample of 169 patients with cocaine addiction and 169 sex-matched controls.
Several studies have looked for a link between cocaine addiction and the genes of the dopaminergic system: the genes DRD2, COMT, SLC6A3 (coding for the dopamine transporterDAT) and DBH (coding for the dopamine beta hydroxylase) but unfortunately very few well established results.
Disulfiram and methylphenidate pharmacotherapies for cocaine addiction are optimized by considering polymorphisms affecting DbetaH and DAT1 respectively.