Polymorphisms of pain-related genes in the population of Corrientes city

LÓPEZ SOTO, EJ; CATANESI, CI

San Juan

Encuentro; Second Joint Meeting of the Biology Societies from Argentina; 2011

Sociedad Argentina de Biología, Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo, Sociedad de Biología de Córdoba

COMT, OPRM1 and PDYN are human genes involved in pain mechanisms. Their polymorphisms have been associated to different nociceptive phenotypes, contributing to inter-individual differences in sensitivity to painful stimuli. Many of these variations have significantly different population frequencies, adding an anthropological interest. Argentinean population mainly has European and Amerindian ancestry, and the impact of these genetic components on the behavior of pain-related markers is unknown. Our aim was to characterize the genetic frequencies of 4 polymorphisms: 1 PDYN VNTR (rs35286281), 2 OPRM1 SNPs (rs17174794, rs2075572) and 1 COMT SNP (rs4633) in an urban population sample of Corrientes City (Corrientes Province, Argentina). We analyzed 100 DNA samples from hospitals by PCR, PCR-RFLP, and electrophoresis. We compared our results to available data from Europeans (Arlequin v3.5). The 4 markers fit Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (Exact Test, p mayor 0.05) and the most frequent alleles were the ancestral ones. Only rs2075572 differentiated our population from the rest (Exact Test, p menor 0.05). This differentiation is probably caused by an Amerindian genetic component introduced during the population admixture process. The study of coding variability is important not only for genotype-phenotype associations, but also for understanding the population admixture process.