Genetic similarities between tobacco use disorder and related comorbidities: an exploratory study

Abstract

BackgroundTobacco use disorder (TUD), defined as the use of tobacco to the detriment of a person’s health or social functioning, is associated with various disorders. We hypothesized that mutual variation in genes may partly explain this link. The aims of this study were to make a non-exhaustive inventory of the disorders using (partially) the same genetic pathways as TUD, and to describe the genetic similarities between TUD and the selected disorders.MethodsWe developed a 3 stage approach: (i) selection of genes influencing TUD using Gene2Mesh and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA), (ii) selection of disorders associated with the selected genes using IPA and (iii) genetic similarities between disorders associated with TUD using Jaccard distance and cluster analyses.ResultsFourteen disorders and thirty-two genes met our inclusion criteria. The Jaccard distance between pairs of disorders ranged from 0.00 (e.g. oesophageal cancer and malignant hypertension) to 0.45 (e.g. bladder cancer and addiction). A lower number in the Jaccard distance indicates a higher similarity between the two disorders. Two main clusters of genetically similar disorders were observed, one including coexisting disorders (e.g. addiction and alcoholism) and the other one with the side-effects of smoking (e.g. gastric cancer and malignant hypertension).ConclusionsThis exploratory study partly explains the potential genetic components linking TUD to other disorders. Two principle clusters of disorders were observed (i) coexisting disorders of TUD and (ii) side-effects of TUD disorders. A further deepening of this observation in a real life study should allow strengthening this hypothesis.

Pathways to smoking behaviours: biological insights from the Tobacco and Genetics Consortium meta-analysis

“…The genes and pathways reported herein worth further investigation in relation to other addiction phenotypes and disease traits such as depression 50 , schizophrenia 51 or cancers 48, 52 with which smoking shares genetic factors 53 .…”

“…As it is based on gene-level statistics obtained in a meta-analytic sample, our study overcomes some limitations of previous exploratory pathway studies 10, 53, 58 such as e.g., the literature selection bias, the bias arising from the use of incongruent analysis protocols or the heterogeneity problem 56, 59, 60 arising from incongruent definition, assessment, and/or distributional properties of the phenotype in question across the selected studies. More importantly, we (and, previously, Vink et al in 39 ) use a hypothesis-free/unbiased genome-wide approach in deriving the list of input genes to be included in the pathway enrichment analyses.…”

A tele-mentoring tobacco cessation case consultation and education model for healthcare providers in community mental health centers

“…However, the relationship between tobacco dependence and psychiatric disorders is complex (Aubin, Rollema, Svensson, & Winterer, 2012). The high co-occurrence between the two may be explained, in part, by a genetic vulnerability to addiction and mental illness (de Viron, Morré, Van Oyen, Brand, & Ouburg, 2014), and by the hypothesized self-medication to alleviate psychiatric symptoms or to relieve adverse side-effects of psychotropic medications (Annamalai et al, 2015; Aubin et al, 2012). Given this complexity as well as the significantly higher levels of tobacco dependence in this population, tobacco use treatment for smokers with mental illness, especially SMI, may necessitate more intensive and individualized pharmacological and behavioral treatment approaches (Hall & Prochaska, 2009).…”

A Tele-mentoring Tobacco Cessation Case Consultation and Education Model for Healthcare Providers in Community Mental Health Centers

“…However, the relationship between tobacco dependence and psychiatric disorders is complex [15]. The high co-occurrence between the two may be explained, in part, by a genetic vulnerability to addiction and mental illness [16], and by the hypothesized self-medication to alleviate psychiatric symptoms or to relieve adverse side-effects of psychotropic medications [5,15]. Given this complexity as well as the significantly higher levels of tobacco dependence in this population, tobacco use treatment for smokers with mental illness, especially SMI, may necessitate more intensive and individualized pharmacological and behavioral treatment approaches [14].…”

“…Since nicotine influences multiple neurochemical processes as well as metabolism of psychiatric medications [15,17], medication side effects, blood levels, and symptoms of mental illness need to be monitored closely during smoking cessation so medication dosage can be adjusted accordingly [13]. With that in mind, it is important to note the lack of evidence for exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms during the course of smoking cessation, which also holds true for patients with SMI [5,6,8,14,16].…”