Dear all,

I am a researcher in Diagen genetic  laboratory and in the Laboratory of epigenetics, Institute of Gerontology, National Academy of Medical Sciences, Kyiv, Ukraine. Together with my colleagues from Ukraine and UK institutions we carry out a research project on genetic risk factors for substance use disorders, that is, genetics of nicotine, alcohol, or drug addictions. 

According to WHO, almost 11 million people inject drugs worldwide, of whom 1.4 million live with HIV and 5.6 million – with hepatitis C. Drug usage leads to nearly 500,000 deaths annually. According to the estimation of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in 2018, there were 346,000 people who injected drugs in Ukraine.

Alcohol abuse is a known leading risk factor for many diseases and deaths, including cardiovascular, cancers, traumas, mental health consequences both for people with alcohol use disorder and for their nearest ones. Smoking is a well-known risk factor for cancer and multiple disorders. 

Previous studies, including Virginia twin study and a number of genome-wide association and linkage studies have shown that liability to substance use disorders is to some extent due to genetic component. They also identified several genomic loci specifically associated with distinct substance's abuse. However, currently there is limited data regarding genetic variants that increase risk of co-morbidity. E.g., some rehab centres specialists are eager to know whether some of their patients, undergoing rehabilitation from alcohol dependence, are more likely to switch their substance to stimulating drugs or opiates, than others. In such case, those individuals should get more attention and monitoring after the rehab course is over.

We perform a candidate gene study aimed at the abovementioned questions in Ukraine. As for now, we have recruited over 500 volunteers.  We have extracted their DNA samples, genotyped at around 10 loci, and carried out a preliminary statistical analysis. The results seem promising. They could point at some unexpected common metabolic and neurobiological pathways underlying these conditions, as well as some substance-specific associations, that have been out of scope in previous research.

We think to publish what we got. However, to get more information, we see it reasonable to include 2-3 more polymorphic loci. To be more confident in our results, we want to expand our sample at least to 700-800 individuals overall. Hopefully , we could replicate the results and reach more well-known journal, so that more people in science would read us and exchange their opinions. Overall, we will be happy if this initiates additional studies in more developed countries. This would further promote knowledge in area of genetics and biochemistry of substance abuse.

Unfortunately, we have no funding left for this project. My team and I, as well as other collaborators would be extremely happy and grateful if you help us to cover reagent expenses. 

Any donation could be helpful. 3-6€ cover buccal epithelium swabs to collect specimens from ~20 people, DNA extraction from 1-2 samples, or PCR of 1 locus for 1 person. These are approximate prices, we will indicate all the reagents in the paper we expect to publish, and we can certainly provide you, if available, the price catalogues of the suppliers on request (however, in some cases they can be in other languages than English).

Thank you in advance! We will keep you updated and insert here a Pubmed link when we get published! If we see interest in the study, we will be happy to write a popular science article and/or to organize a free webinar concerning our results!