Morphine is an essential medication for treatment of severe acute and chronic pain. However, interindividual differences in pain sensitivity and analgesic response make the clinical use of morphine challenging. Approximately 10-30% of patients report an unsatisfactory pain relief or intolerable side effects, which often leads to drug withdrawal. Several confounding factors such as age, gender, mental state, polypharmacy, organ function, comorbidity and certain lifestyle habits can influence the therapeutic outcome and thus contribute to the variability seen. Genetic variation has also shown to alter the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of morphine. In the following, a brief overview will be provided on how genes encoding pharmacokinetic (drug transporters or metabolizing enzymes) and pharmacodynamic (receptors or enzymes) factors can play a vital role for the efficacy of morphine.
Polymorphisms affecting drug transportersGenetic polymorphisms can alter the functionality of gene products and thus affect drug response and severity of side effects. Morphine is a substrate for P-gp, which is an efflux transporter, belonging to the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) family, encoded by the ABCB1 gene. P-gp serves as a defender against xenobiotics by limiting drug absorption over the small intestine and facilitating excretion by transporting drugs into bile -and urine ducts. Last but not least, it also transports xenobiotics out of the brain across the blood-brain barrier, thereby minimizing drug-receptor interactions.In vitro studies have found an association between polymorphisms of the ABCB1 gene and lower glycoprotein activity and expression levels in the duodenum, natural killer cells and renal parenchyma [1]. Some observational studies in cancer patients have also found an association between ABCB1 polymorphisms and altered analgesic responses and dose requirements. However, other similar study approaches reveal no such relationship [2,3]. Moreover, no significant results have been found in human experimental pain models and controlled clinical-pain models [1,2,4]. This could be due to poor study designs lacking relevant end points (e.g., side effects and pharmacodynamic response). Presently, the C3435T polymorphism is the most studied ABCB1 SNP. It is plausible that other ABCB1 SNPs have a clinical significance, although additional studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.Another but functionally different transporter is the OCT1, which transports organic cations such as morphine into hepatocytes, thus potentially influencing morphine disposition and hepatic metabolism. Currently, no strong evidence suggests that the OCT1 reduced-function polymorphisms affect morphine response. However, one study did find a significant higher morphine AUC 0-24 h and an insignificant higher C max in healthy Caucasian carriers. Unfortunately, no pharmacodynamic end points were evaluated, wthereby the clinical impact is impossible to discuss [5].