Abstract 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 Pocket Tool 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 Pumice 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.