Genetic Influence of COMT and BDNF Gene Polymorphisms on Resilience in Healthy College Students

Kang, Jee In; Kim, Se Joo; Song, Yoo Sung; Namkoong, Kee; An, Suk Kyoon

doi:10.1159/000353257

Cited by 33 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…COMT Val158Met polymorphism ( rs4680 ) was genotyped utilizing the TaqMan ® SNP Genotyping Assay as described by the manufacturer (Applied Biosystems, Carlsbad, CA, Assay ID# C_25746809_50). For the purpose of evaluating a potential protective benefit of the Met 158 allele, Met 158 / Met 158 and Met 158 / Val 158 were combined as a single group as previously described for COMT [37–40] and other genetic polymorphisms in TBI [41–43]. Therefore, for data reporting and all figures, this group is referred to as Met 158 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

COMT Val 158 Met polymorphism is associated with nonverbal cognition following mild traumatic brain injury

et al. 2015

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Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) results in variable clinical outcomes, which may be influenced by genetic variation. A single-nucleotide polymorphism in catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT), an enzyme which degrades catecholamine neurotransmitters, may influence cognitive deficits following moderate and/or severe head trauma. However, this has been disputed, and its role in mTBI has not been studied. Here, we utilize the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury Pilot (TRACK-TBI Pilot) study to investigate whether the COMT Val158Met polymorphism influences outcome on a cognitive battery 6 months following mTBI—Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test Processing Speed Index Composite Score (WAIS-PSI), Trail Making Test (TMT) Trail B minus Trail A time, and California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition Trial 1–5 Standard Score (CVLT-II). All patients had an emergency department Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 13–15, no acute intracranial pathology on head CT, and no polytrauma as defined by an Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) score of ≥3 in any extracranial region. Results in 100 subjects aged 40.9 (SD 15.2) years (COMT Met158/Met158 29 %, Met158/Val158 47 %, Val158/Val158 24 %) show that the COMT Met158 allele (mean 101.6±SE 2.1) associates with higher nonverbal processing speed on the WAIS-PSI when compared to Val158/Val158 homozygotes (93.8±SE 3.0) after controlling for demographics and injury severity (mean increase 7.9 points, 95 % CI [1.4 to 14.3], p=0.017). The COMT Val158Met polymorphism did not associate with mental flexibility on the TMT or with verbal learning on the CVLT-II. Hence, COMT Val158Met may preferentially modulate nonverbal cognition following uncomplicated mTBI.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

COMT Val 158 Met polymorphism is associated with nonverbal cognition following mild traumatic brain injury

et al. 2015

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“…Val 158 allele carriers display more resilience in their temperament (Kang et al, 2013), whereas Met 158 carriers have a higher risk of emotional dysregulation (Kempton et al, 2009). The link between COMT and novelty seeking was shown by Chen and colleagues, who demonstrated that males ( n = 250) carrying the Val/Val genotype displayed lower novelty seeking (Chen et al, 2011).…”

Section: Molecular Connection Between Novelty Seeking and Addictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novelty Seeking and Drug Addiction in Humans and Animals: From Behavior to Molecules

Wingo

Nesil

Choi

et al. 2015

J Neuroimmune Pharmacol

129

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Global treatment of drug addiction costs society billions of dollars annually, but current psychopharmacological therapies have not been successful at desired rates. The increasing number of individuals suffering from substance abuse has turned attention to what makes some people more vulnerable to drug addiction than others. One personality trait that stands out as a contributing factor is novelty seeking. Novelty seeking, affected by both genetic and environmental factors, is defined as the tendency to desire novel stimuli and environments. It can be measured in humans through questionnaires and in rodents using behavioral tasks. On the behavioral level, both human and rodent studies demonstrate that high novelty seeking can predict the initiation of drug use and a transition to compulsive drug use and create a propensity to relapse. These predictions are valid for several drugs of abuse, such as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamine, and opiates. On the molecular level, both novelty seeking and addiction are modulated by the central reward system in the brain. Dopamine is the primary neurotransmitter involved in the overlapping neural substrates of both parameters. In sum, the novelty-seeking trait can be valuable for predicting individual vulnerability to drug addiction and for generating successful treatment for patients with substance abuse disorders.

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“…It should be mentioned that due to genetic pleiotropy, both COMT and BDNF have been found to be associated with several other aspects of cognition beyond WM, including reaction time (Das et al, 2014), cognitive flexibility (Kang et al, 2013), aging-related cognitive degradation (Ghisletta et al, 2014; Voelcker-Rehage et al, 2015), executive function (Leckie et al, 2014; Sapkota et al, 2015), and neurocognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia (Ahmed et al, 2015) or Parkinson's disease (Khalil et al, 2016). Nevertheless, WM has been the main focus of the previous literature in this field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction Effects of BDNF and COMT Genes on Resting-State Brain Activity and Working Memory

Chen

Xia

et al. 2016

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) genes have been found to interactively influence working memory (WM) as well as brain activation during WM tasks. However, whether the two genes have interactive effects on resting-state activities of the brain and whether these spontaneous activations correlate with WM are still unknown. This study included behavioral data from WM tasks and genetic data (COMT rs4680 and BDNF Val66Met) from 417 healthy Chinese adults and resting-state fMRI data from 298 of them. Significant interactive effects of BDNF and COMT were found for WM performance as well as for resting-state regional homogeneity (ReHo) in WM-related brain areas, including the left medial frontal gyrus (lMeFG), left superior frontal gyrus (lSFG), right superior and medial frontal gyrus (rSMFG), right medial orbitofrontal gyrus (rMOFG), right middle frontal gyrus (rMFG), precuneus, bilateral superior temporal gyrus, left superior occipital gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, and right inferior parietal lobule. Simple effects analyses showed that compared to other genotypes, subjects with COMT-VV/BDNF-VV had higher WM and lower ReHo in all five frontal brain areas. The results supported the hypothesis that COMT and BDNF polymorphisms influence WM performance and spontaneous brain activity (i.e., ReHo).

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Genetic Influence of COMT and BDNF Gene Polymorphisms on Resilience in Healthy College Students

Cited by 33 publications

References 47 publications

COMT Val 158 Met polymorphism is associated with nonverbal cognition following mild traumatic brain injury

COMT Val 158 Met polymorphism is associated with nonverbal cognition following mild traumatic brain injury

Novelty Seeking and Drug Addiction in Humans and Animals: From Behavior to Molecules

Interaction Effects of BDNF and COMT Genes on Resting-State Brain Activity and Working Memory

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