We investigated two functional polymorphisms in NLRP3 inflammasome genes (
rs35829419 and
rs2043211) and their association with alcohol dependence and related anxiety, depression, ...obsession-compulsion, or aggression in 88 hospitalised alcohol-dependent patients, 99 abstinent alcohol-dependent participants, and 94 controls, all male Caucasian. Alcohol dependence-related psychiatric disorders were assessed with the Zung Depression and Anxiety scale, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, Brief Social Phobia Scale, Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale, and Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. For genotyping we used the allele-specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction-based methods. The three groups differed significantly in
rs2043211 distribution (P=0.049; chi-squared=9.557; df=4). The
rs35829419 polymorphism was not significantly associated with alcohol dependence. In hospitalised alcohol-dependent patients the investigated polymorphisms were not associated with scores indicating alcohol consumption or comorbid symptoms. In abstinent alcohol-dependent subjects homozygotes for the polymorphic
allele presented with the highest scores on the Zung Anxiety Scale (p=0.048; df=2; F=3.140). Among controls,
genotype was associated with high scores on the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (P=0.027; df=2; F=3.744). In conclusion, our results reveal that
rs2043211 may play some role in susceptibility to alcohol dependence, expression of anxiety symptoms in abstinent alcohol-dependent subjects, and in obsessive compulsive drinking in healthy controls. However, further studies with larger cohorts are required to confirm these preliminary findings.
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