Genetics of cocaine use

Understanding how an individual’s genetics interact with cocaine use could lead to more effective treatment for cocaine-use disorder.^[1] This understanding could be translated into more intelligently designed therapies that target specific components within the disease pathway of cocaine-use disorder, as well as into more personalised treatments.^[1] A field of therapy known as pharmacogenetics, wherein an individual’s genetics can be used to pick a therapy that best matches the individual, must driven by detailed understanding of how the genetics of a disorder interacts with other risk and protective factors.^[1]

Reference:
[1] Fernàndez-Castillo N, Cabana-Domínguez J, Corominas R, Cormand B. Molecular genetics of cocaine use disorders in humans. Mol Psychiatry 2022; 27 (1): 624–639.

[2] Sun J, Kranzler HR, Gelernter J, Bi J. A genome-wide association study of cocaine use disorder accounting for phenotypic heterogeneity and gene–environment interaction. J Psychiatry Neurosci 2020; 45 (1): 34–44.

[3] GeneCards website. Available at: https://www.genecards.org/. Accessed March 2022.