Prefrontal cortex may age faster with cocaine use disorder
People with cocaine use disorder exhibited differences in DNA methylation in Brodmann Area 9 of the prefrontal cortex, according to a study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry.
“As DNA methylation is an important regulatory mechanism for gene expression, the identified DNA methylation alterations might contribute to functional changes in the human brain and thereby to the associated behavioral aspects of addiction,” Eric Poisel, MSc, a PhD student at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, said in a press release.
Poisel and colleagues collected postmortem Brodmann Area 9 brain samples from 21 people with a diagnosis of cocaine use disorder and 21 people without a diagnosis of cocaine use disorder. They extracted DNA from each sample and conducted an epigenome-wide association study. They also evaluated differentially methylated regions associated with cocaine use disorder using gene ontology enrichment analyses.
There were no associations between any cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites and cocaine use disorder in epigenome-wide association studies.
The researchers identified 20 differentially methylated regions associated with cocaine use disorder. Samples from people with cocaine use disorder had more methylation in 17 of these regions and less methylation in the other three regions.
Using Horvath’s and Levine’s epigenetic clocks, the researchers identified associations between cocaine use disorder and epigenetic age, suggesting that the disorder was associated with older epigenetic age. However, the associations were not statistically significant.
“This could be caused by cocaine-related disease processes in the brain, such as inflammation or cell death,” Stephanie Witt, PhD, a researcher at the Central Institute of Mental Health, said in the release. “As biological age estimation is a very recent concept in addiction research and is influenced by many factors, further studies are required to investigate this phenomenon, with larger sample sizes than were possible here.”
References:
- Dijkstra M. Cocaine addiction makes the brain age faster, suggests study. https://blog.frontiersin.org/2023/02/14/frontiers-psychiatry-cocaine-use-disorder-prefrontal-cortex-methylome-changes/. Published Feb. 14, 2023. Accessed Feb. 17, 2023.
- Poisel E, et al. Front Psychiatry. 2023;doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1075250.