Genetic polymorphism in HTR2A rs6313 is associated with internet addiction disorder

Yu Dai; Chenchen Zhang; Lingrui Zhang; Chao Wen; Hongya Li; Tianmin Zhu

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1292877

Genetic polymorphism in HTR2A rs6313 is associated with internet addiction disorder

Front Psychiatry. 2024 Feb 14:15:1292877. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1292877. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Yu Dai^{1

2}, Chenchen Zhang³, Lingrui Zhang⁴, Chao Wen², Hongya Li², Tianmin Zhu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu Eighth People's Hospital (Geriatric Hospital of Chengdu Medical College), Chengdu, China.
² College of Rehabilitation and Health Preservation, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China.
³ Department of Rehabilitation, Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Longquanyi District, Chengdu, China.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Leshan Vocational and Technical College, Leshan, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Internet addiction disorder (IAD) has grown into public health concern of global proportions. Previous studies have indicated that individuals with IAD may exhibit altered levels of serotonin and dopamine, which are known to play crucial roles in depression, anxiety, impulsivity, and addiction. Therefore, polymorphisms in the receptors that mediate the effects of serotonin and dopamine and affect their functional states as well as their activities are suspect. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between IAD and rs6313 (T102C) polymorphism in the serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2A) gene, (HTR2A).

Methods: Twenty patients with IAD and twenty healthy controls (HCs) were included in this study. Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Self-Rating Depression Scale, Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Barratt Impulse Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) were used to assess the severity of internet addiction, mental status, impulsive traits, sleep quality, and social support. Genotyping was performed to identify rs6313 polymorphisms in the HTR2A gene of all participants.

Results: The frequencies of the C and T alleles of HTR2A T102C were 28% and 72% in the IAD group and 53% and 47% in the HCs group, respectively, indicating that the differences between these two groups were significant. No significant difference was observed in the distribution of the CC, CT, and TT genotypes of HTR2A gene T102C between the IAD and the HCs groups. Additionally, there was no difference in the distribution of the frequencies of the HTR2A gene T102C CC and CT+TT genotypes between the two groups. However, the distribution between the TT and CC+CT genotypes showed an apparent statistical difference in the HTR2A gene T102C between the two groups. Correlation analysis indicated that the IAT score was positively correlated with the Y-BOCS and BIS scores for the CC+CT genotype in patients with IAD. Moreover, the IAT score was positively correlated with the PSQI score in patients with IAD carrying the TT genotype.

Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that rs6313 in HTR2A is associated with IAD, and that the T allele of rs6313 in HTR2A may be a risk factor for IAD.

Keywords: 5-HT receptor; gene polymorphism; internet addiction disorder; rs6313 gene; serotonin 2A receptor.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (81072852 and 81574047), the Key Research and Development Projects of Sichuan Science and Technology Department (2019YFS0175), the Xinglin Scholars Scientific Research Promotion Program of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (XSGG2019007), and the Training Funds of Academic and Technical Leader in Sichuan Province.