title: Association of the neutral endopeptidase (MME) gene with anxiety.
abstract: Enkephalins have been implicated in the regulation of mood, anxiety, reward, euphoria and pain. One of the major enzymes for enkephalin degradation is neutral endopeptidase [enkephalinase, membrane metalloendopeptidase (MME)]. We identified a dinucleotide polymorphism in the 5' region of the MME gene. Subjects were placed into three genotypes, 3/3, 3/x, and x/x since the 3 allele was the most common of the six alleles. Using one-way analysis of variance, we examined the association of these genotypes with the mean SCL-90 scores for anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive and phobic anxiety symptoms in 120 Caucasian males from an addiction treatment unit. There was a significant association between the MME genotypes and the SCL-90 scores for phobic anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and anxiety at a Bonferroni corrected alpha value of 0.0125. These results support a role of genetic variants of enkephalin metabolism in anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, City of Hope Medical Center, Duarte, CA 91010, USA. dcomings@barthlink.net
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Comings
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dietz
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gade-Andavolu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Blake
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Muhleman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huss
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Saucier
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: MacMurray
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000235:genetics*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000235:genetics*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015260:Neprilysin / Q000235:genetics*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000235:genetics; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000235:genetics; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015260:Neprilysin