This novel paper appears in PLoS Computational Biology on January 4, 2008.

Drug addiction is a serious worldwide problem with strong genetic and environmental influences. So far different technologies have revealed a variety of genes and biological processes underlying addiction. However, individual technology can be biased and render only an incomplete picture. Studying individual or a small number of genes is like looking at pieces of a jigsaw puzzle - only when you gather most of the pieces from different places and arrange them together in an orderly fashion do interesting patterns emerge.

The team, led by Liping Wei, surveyed scientific literature published in the past 30 years and collected 2,343 items of evidence linking genes and chromosome regions to addiction based on single-gene strategies, microarray, proteomics, or genetic studies. They made this gene atlas freely available in the first online molecular database for addiction, named KARG (karg.cbi.pku.cn), with extensive annotations and friendly web interface.

Assembling the pieces of evidence together, the authors identified 18 molecular pathways that are statistically enriched in the addiction-related genes. They then identified five pathways that are common to addiction to four different substances. These common pathways may underlie shared rewarding and response mechanisms and may be targets for effective treatments for a wide range of addictive disorders.

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These findings have significant implications for several medical applications. Scientists can now begin to investigate whether PHD1-blockers can prevent the damage caused by blockage of a blood vessel through thrombosis or after a heart attack (in which the cardiac muscle experiences a shortage of oxygen). New treatment alternatives may also be possible for strokes, and surgeons may also be able to reduce the oxygen supply to organs for a longer period of time during many types of operations.

The absence of PHD1 might also explain the mysterious adaptations of hibernating animals, with important implications for the preservation of organs for transplant. Such tissues often have to contend with prolonged oxygen deficiency, which destroys their viability for transplantation. If these organs could be kept in a hibernation ™ condition, perhaps more lives could be saved...

This research has been funded by: CNIC, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Lymphatic Research Foundation, Fond Qu?©b?©cois de la nature et des technologies, Federal Government Belgium, FWO, NIH, FRFC, K.U.Leuven, and VIB.

This research was conducted by Julian Aragon?©s and colleagues in the Functional genomics of cardiovascular and neurovascular biology and disease ™ research group, led by Peter Carmeliet, within VIB ™s Department of Transgene Technology and Gene Therapy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, under the direction of D?©sir?© Collen.

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