Valence-Specific Effects ofBDNFVal⁶⁶Met Polymorphism on Dopaminergic Stress and Reward Processing in Humans

Abstract

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in dopaminergic (

The dopaminergic response to acute stress in health and psychopathology: A systematic review

“…Pain stress-induced reductions in NAcc [11C]raclopride BP ND were also demonstrated in a mixed sample of HV and CNBP (Martikainen et al, 2015). As in the dorsal striatum, associations were reported between pain stress-induced changes in NAcc [11C]raclopride BP ND in HV and genetic variations in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Peciña et al, 2014c), leptin gene (Burghardt et al, 2012), DA receptor subtype 2 (Peciña et al, 2013), serotonin 2C receptor gene and μ-opioid receptor gene (Peciña et al, 2014a), but not with fatty acid amide hydrolase gene (Peciña et al, 2014b).…”

“…One explanation for the relative paucity of stress-related findings in this area is that stress-induced DAergic activity here is subject to more variation compared to other regions. The ventral striatal DAergic stress response has been associated with genetic variation in several SNPs (Burghardt et al, 2012;Mickey et al, 2012;Peciña et al, 2014a;Peciña et al, 2014c;Peciña et al, 2013), personality characteristics and rearing conditions (Pruessner et al, 2004;Soliman et al, 2008), indeed suggesting that stress-induced DAergic activity here is susceptible to many factors. DAergic activity in the ventral striatum is typically associated with reward expectancy (Berridge, 2007;de la Fuente-Fernandez et al, 2002).…”

Molecular Mechanisms of Placebo Responses in Humans

“…A different study examined the role of genetic variation within the brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene on DA responses to reward anticipation and pain and placebo-induced changes in DA neurotransmission. BDNF has an important role in synaptic plasticity and the survival and function of DA neurons within the VTA-NAc pathway 56 , and therefore represents a candidate mechanism to examine inter-individual variability in DA related function. This study examined the effects of the BDNF functional single nucleotide polymorphism, Val 66 Met, on basal ganglia DA-associated mechanisms, which included responses to the anticipation of monetary gains and losses, as well as psychophysical and DA responses to the pain challenge, in the absence and presence of a placebo with putative analgesic properties.…”

Epistatic interaction of BDNF and COMT on the frontostriatal system

“…BDNF Val66Met affects intracellular processing and activity-dependent secretion of BDNF (Chen et al, 2004b); whereas COMT Val158Met causes variations in COMT enzymatic activity (Chen et al, 2004a). Prior studies have documented that these two polymorphisms were involved in the PFC and in striatal dependent function and structure (Egan et al, 2001;Pezawas et al, 2004;Pecina et al, 2014 COMT Val158Met polymorphism has consistently been associated with activity and functional connectivity of PFC during executive function tasks, especially working memory (Tunbridge et al, 2013). Furthermore, it also impacts the activation of subcortical regions including amygdala and VST during emotional processing tasks (Drabant et al, 2006).…”