Genetic Correlates as a Predictor of Bariatric Surgery Outcomes after 1 Year

Panayotis K Thanos; Colin Hanna; Abrianna Mihalkovic; Aaron Hoffman; Alan Posner; John Butsch; Kenneth Blum; Lesley Georger; Lucy D Mastrandrea; Teresa Quattrin

doi:10.3390/biomedicines11102644

Genetic Correlates as a Predictor of Bariatric Surgery Outcomes after 1 Year

Biomedicines. 2023 Sep 27;11(10):2644. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines11102644.

Authors

Panayotis K Thanos¹, Colin Hanna¹, Abrianna Mihalkovic^{1

2}, Aaron Hoffman³, Alan Posner⁴, John Butsch⁴, Kenneth Blum^{5

6

7

8

9

10

11}, Lesley Georger¹², Lucy D Mastrandrea¹³, Teresa Quattrin¹³

Affiliations

¹ Behavioral Neuropharmacology and Neuroimaging Laboratory on Addictions, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Clinical Research Institute on Addictions, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biosciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA.
² Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA.
³ Department of Surgery, Methodist Hospital Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75208, USA.
⁴ Department of Surgery, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA.
⁵ Division of Nutrigenomics, SpliceGen, Therapeutics, Inc., Austin, TX 78701, USA.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and Dayton VA Medical Center, Dayton, OH 45435, USA.
⁷ Division of Addiction Research & Education, Center for Exercise Sports & Global Mental Health, Western University Health Sciences, Pomona, CA 91766, USA.
⁸ The Kenneth Blum Behavioral & Neurogenetic Institute, LLC., Austin, TX 78701, USA.
⁹ Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, 1075 Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁰ Centre for Genomics and Applied Gene Technology, Institute of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology (IIOAB), Nonakuri, Purba Medinipur 721172, West Bengal, India.
¹¹ Department of Molecular Biology, Adelson School of Medicine, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel.
¹² Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, D'Youville University, Buffalo, NY 14201, USA.
¹³ UBMD Pediatrics, JR Oishei Children's Hospital, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA.

Abstract

This study analyzed genetic risk assessments in patients undergoing bariatric surgery to serve as a predictive factor for weight loss parameters 1 year after the operation. Thirty (30) patients were assessed for Genetic Addiction Risk Severity (GARS), which analyzes neurogenetic polymorphisms involved in addiction and reward deficiency. Genetic and psychosocial data collected before the operation were correlated with weight loss data, including changes in weight, body mass index (BMI), and percent of expected weight loss (%EWL). Results examined correlations between individual gene risk alleles, 1-year body weight data, and psychosocial trait scores. Spearman's correlations revealed that the OPRM1 (rs1799971) gene polymorphism had significant negative correlation with 1-year weight (r_s = -0.4477, p < 0.01) and BMI (r_s = -0.4477, p < 0.05). In addition, the DRD2 risk allele (rs1800497) was correlated negatively with BMI at 1 year (r_s = -0.4927, p < 0.05), indicating that one risk allele copy was associated with lower BMI. However, this allele was positively correlated with both ∆Weight (r_s = 0.4077, p < 0.05) and %EWL (r_s = 0.5521, p < 0.05) at 1 year post-surgery. Moreover, the overall GARS score was correlated with %EWL (r_s = 0.4236, p < 0.05), ∆Weight (r_s = 0.3971, p < 0.05) and ∆BMI (r_s = 0.3778, p < 0.05). Lastly, Food Cravings Questionnaire (FCQ) scores were negatively correlated with %EWL (r_s = -0.4320, p < 0.05) and ∆Weight at 1 year post-surgery (r_s = -0.4294, p < 0.05). This suggests that individuals with a higher genetic addiction risk are more responsive to weight loss treatment, especially in the case of the DRD2 polymorphism. These results should translate clinically to improve positivity and attitude related to weight management by those individuals born with the risk alleles (rs1800497; rs1799971).

Keywords: DRD2 gene; GARS; Reward-Deficiency Syndrome; addiction; bariatric surgery; behavioral addiction; dopamine homeostasis; genetics; obesity; psychosocial.

Abstract

Grants and funding