Pain perception genes, asthma, and oral health: A reverse genetics study

Abstract

Pain is an experience of a subjective nature, interpreted in a personal way and according to an extensive palette of factors unique to each individual. Orofacial pain can be acute or chronic and it is usually the main reason for the patient to seek dental care. Pain perception varies widely among individuals. This variability is considered a mosaic of factors, which include biopsychosocial factors and genetic factors. Understanding these differences can be extremely beneficial for pain management in a personalized and more efficient way. We performed association studies to investigate phenotypes associated with genetic markers in pain-related genes in two groups of patients who received more or less anesthesia during dental treatment. The study group was comprised of 1289 individuals participating in the Dental Registry and DNA Repository Project (DRDR) of the University of Pittsburgh, with 900 participants in the group that received the most anesthesia and 389 constituting the comparison group that received less anesthesia. We tested 58 phenotypes and genotypic data of seven SNPs in genes that are associated with pain perception, pain modulation and response to drugs used in pain treatment: COMT (rs4818 and rs6269), GCH1 (rs3783641), DRD2 (rs6276), OPRM1 (rs1799971), SCN9A (rs6746030) and SCN10A (rs6795970). The analysis revealed a protective effect of rs1799971 on asthma in the total sample. rs3783641 was associated with salivary secretion disorders in females who received more anesthesia. rs1799971 was also associated with periodontitis in Whites who received less anesthesia. rs4818 was associated with disease and other tongue conditions in the group composed of Blacks who received less anesthesia. In conclusion, our study implicated variants in pain-related genes in asthma and oral phenotypes.

Postoperative Analgesics Score as a Predictor of Chronic Postoperative Inguinal Pain After Inguinal Hernia Repair: Lessons Learned From a Retrospective Analysis

“…While probably precise surgical technique and proper nerve management can reduce neuropathic pain, the problem of nociceptive pain remains. Two factors may play a role here: the genetic nature of the metabolism of analgesics and the genetic nature of pain sensitivity as such [28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Further studies will be needed here.…”

A preliminary study on the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms and methylation of dopamine system‐related genes with psychotic symptoms in patients with methamphetamine use disorder

“…The COMT enzyme methylates and thereby inactivates catecholamine neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine, epinephrine, and DA. COMTrs4818 is associated with cognitive processing (Gaysina et al, 2013; Ioannidis et al, 2020), executive function (Cherner et al, 2019; Saloner et al, 2020), psychological function (Madzarac et al, 2021; Vieira et al, 2022), pain modulation (Lisboa et al, 2022; Omair et al, 2015), and so forth. According to our data (shown in Table 3 and Figure 2), MAUD patients who were COMT rs4818 G carriers had higher motor‐impulsive scores.…”