(Press-News.org) Among infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS; caused by in utero opioid exposure), variants in certain genes were associated with a shorter length of hospital stay and less need for treatment, preliminary findings that may provide insight into the mechanisms underlying NAS, according to a study in the May 1 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health.
Jonathan M. Davis, M.D., of The Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, Boston, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing.
"In the past decade, there has been a significant increase in opioid use during pregnancy, estimated to affect 5.6 per 1,000 births," according to background information in the article. Neonatal abstinence syndrome is a disorder composed of a constellation of signs and symptoms involving dysfunction of the nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, and respiratory system because of in utero drug exposure or iatrogenic (due to therapy) withdrawal after maternal use of drugs for pain control during pregnancy. "The incidence of NAS has tripled in the past decade, affecting 60 percent to 80 percent of infants born to mothers receiving methadone or buprenorphine. Although clinical factors, including maternal smoking, psychiatric medications, and breastfeeding, can affect the incidence and severity of NAS, to our knowledge contributing genetic factors influencing NAS have not been pre¬viously identified."
Variations in the genes OPRM1, ABCB1, and COMT are associated with risk for opioid addiction in adults. Dr. Davis and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether genomic variations in these genes are associated with length of hospital stay (LOS) and the need for treatment of NAS. The study was conducted at 5 tertiary care centers and community hospitals in Massachusetts and Maine between July 2011 and July 2012. DNA samples were genotyped for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and NAS outcomes were correlated with genotype.
Eighty-six of 140 eligible mother-infant dyads (pairs) were enrolled. Infants were eligible if they were 36 weeks' gestational age or older and exposed to methadone or buprenorphine in utero. Eighty-one (94 percent) of the mothers were receiving opioid substitution therapy from the first trimester, with 17 (20 percent) relapsing into illicit drug use during the third trimester. Average LOS for all infants was 22.3 days; for treated infants, 31.6 days. Fifty-six (65 percent) of all infants were treated for NAS.
The researchers found that infants with the OPRM1 118A>G AG/GG genotype had shortened length of stay (-8.5 days [calculated with linear regression models]) and were less likely to receive any treatment than infants with the AA genotype (48 percent vs. 72 percent). "The COMT 158A>G AG/GG genotype was associated with shortened length of stay (-10.8 days) and less treatment with 2 or more medications (18 percent vs. 56 percent) than the AA genotype. Associations with the ABCB1 SNPs were not significant."
"To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the association of genomics with opioid withdrawal in infants and may provide insight into the mechanisms underlying NAS. There is a need for replication of these results before more definitive conclusions can be made of the association between the OPRM1 and COMT variants and NAS," the authors conclude.
###
(JAMA. 2013;309(17):1821-1827; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
Study examines effects of genetic variants for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome
2013-04-30
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Study examines neurodevelopmental outcomes for children born extremely preterm
2013-04-30
Fredrik Serenius, M.D., Ph.D., of Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, and colleagues conducted a study to assess neurological and developmental outcome in extremely preterm (less than 27 gestational weeks) children at 2.5 years.
"A proactive approach to resuscitation and intensive care of extremely preterm infants has increased survival and lowered the gestational age of viability. There are concerns that increased survival may come at the cost of later neurodevelopmental disability among survivors. Approximately 25 percent of extremely preterm infants born in the 1990s ...
Shedding light on the long shadow of childhood adversity
2013-04-30
Childhood adversity can lead to chronic physical and mental disability in adult life and have an effect on the next generation, underscoring the importance of research, practice and policy in addressing this issue, according to a Viewpoint in the May 1 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on child health.
David A. Brent, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, presented the Viewpoint at a JAMA media briefing.
Dr. Brent and co-author Michael Silverstein, M.D., M.P.H., of the Boston University School of ...
Does antimatter fall up or down?
2013-04-30
The atoms that make up ordinary matter fall down, so do antimatter atoms fall up? Do they experience gravity the same way as ordinary atoms, or is there such a thing as antigravity?
These questions have long intrigued physicists, says Joel Fajans of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), because "in the unlikely event that antimatter falls upwards, we'd have to fundamentally revise our view of physics and rethink how the universe works."
So far, all the evidence that gravity is the same for matter and antimatter is indirect, ...
Is antimatter anti-gravity?
2013-04-30
Antimatter is strange stuff. It has the opposite electrical charge to normal matter and, when it meets its matter counterpart, the two annihilate in a flash of light.
Four University of California, Berkeley, physicists are now asking whether matter and antimatter are also affected differently by gravity. Could antimatter fall upward – that is, exhibit anti-gravity – or fall downward at a different rate than normal matter?
Almost everyone, including the physicists, thinks that antimatter will likely fall at the same rate as normal matter, but no one has ever dropped antimatter ...
Graphene's high-speed seesaw
2013-04-30
Writing in Nature Communications, the researchers report the first graphene-based transistor with bistable characteristics, which means that the device can spontaneously switch between two electronic states. Such devices are in great demand as emitters of electromagnetic waves in the high-frequency range between radar and infra-red, relevant for applications such as security systems and medical imaging.
Bistability is a common phenomenon – a seesaw-like system has two equivalent states and small perturbations can trigger spontaneous switching between them. The way in ...
Canada's distinctive tuya volcanoes reveal glacial, palaeo-climate secrets
2013-04-30
Deposits left by the eruption of a subglacial volcano, or tuya, 1.8 million years ago could hold the secret to more accurate palaeo-glacial and climate models, according to new research by University of British Columbia geoscientists.
The detailed mapping and sampling of the partially eroded Kima' Kho tuya in northern British Columbia, Canada shows that the ancient regional ice sheet through which the volcano erupted was twice as thick as previously estimated.
Subglacial eruptions generate distinctive deposits indicating whether they were deposited below or above ...
Genetics Society of America's GENETICS journal highlights for May 2013
2013-04-30
Bethesda, MD—April 30, 2013 – Listed below are the selected highlights for the May 2013 issue of the Genetics Society of America's journal, GENETICS. The May issue is available online at http://www.genetics.org/content/current. Please credit GENETICS, Vol. 194, MAY 2013, Copyright © 2013.
Please feel free to forward to colleagues who may be interested in these articles on a wide array of topics including: developmental and behavioral genetics; genome integrity and transmission; genetics of complex traits; cellular genetics; and population and evolutionary genetics.
ISSUE ...
Membrane remodeling: Where yoga meets cell biology
2013-04-30
Cells ingest proteins and engulf bacteria by a gymnastic, shape-shifting process called endocytosis. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health revealed how a key protein, dynamin, drives the action.
Endocytosis lets cells absorb nutrients, import growth factors, prevent infections and accomplish many other vital tasks. Yet, despite decades of research, scientists don't fully understand this membrane remodeling process. New research reveals, on the real-life scale of nanometers, how individual molecules work together during a single act of endocytosis.
"We've ...
U of M research: Mentoring, leadership program key to ending bullying in at-risk teen girls
2013-04-30
New research from experts within the University of Minnesota School of Nursing has found teen girls at high risk for pregnancy reported being significantly less likely to participate in social bullying after participating in an 18-month preventive intervention program.
This research, in combination with University of Minnesota School of Nursing research findings from March 2013, demonstrate the preventative intervention program can reduce social bullying among all girls, including those who did and did not have strong family ties. Furthermore, girls in the intervention ...
STOP Obesity Alliance encourages nonprofit hospitals to address obesity via CHB requirements
2013-04-30
Washington, DC, April 30, 2013 – The nation's more than 2,900 nonprofit hospitals are facing new requirements to qualify for federal tax-exempt status under the Affordable Care Act, including producing a Community Health Needs Assessment that identifies local health needs. With obesity affecting more than one-third of adults and 17 percent of children in the United States, the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance released five research-based, consensus recommendations today to help guide nonprofit hospitals in developing programs that address obesity ...