Dataset Information

The genetic relationship between cannabis and tobacco cigarette use in European- and African-American female twins and siblings.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Use of cigarettes and cannabis frequently co-occurs. We examine the role of genetic and environmental influences on variation in and covariation between tobacco cigarette and cannabis use across European-American (EA) and African-American (AA) women. METHODS:Data on lifetime cannabis and cigarette use were drawn from interviews of 956 AA and 3557 EA young adult female twins and non-twin same sex female full siblings. Twin modeling was used to decompose variance in and covariance between cigarette and cannabis use into additive genetic, shared, special twin and non-shared environmental sources. RESULTS:Cigarette use was more common in EAs (75.3%, 95% C.I. 73.8-76.7%) than AAs (64.2%, 95% C.I. 61.2-67.2%) while cannabis use was marginally more commonly reported by AAs (55.5%, 95% C.I. 52.5-58.8%) than EAs (52.4%, 95% C.I. 50.7-54.0%). Additive genetic factors were responsible for 43-66% of the variance in cigarette and cannabis use. Broad shared environmental factors (shared+special twin) played a more significant role in EA (23-29%) than AA (2-15%) women. In AA women, the influence of non-shared environment was more pronounced (42-45% vs. 11-19% in EA women). There was strong evidence for the same familial influences underlying use of both substances (rA=0.82-0.89; rC+T=0.70-0.75). Non-shared environmental factors were also correlated but less so (rE=0.48-0.66). No racial/ethnic differences were apparent in these sources of covariation. CONCLUSION:Heritability of cigarette and cannabis use is comparable across racial/ethnic groups. Differences in the contribution of shared and non-shared environmental influences indicate that different factors may shape substance use in EA and AA women.

SUBMITTER: Agrawal A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4904709 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The genetic relationship between cannabis and tobacco cigarette use in European- and African-American female twins and siblings.

Agrawal Arpana A Grant Julia D JD Lynskey Michael T MT Madden Pamela A F PA Heath Andrew C AC Bucholz Kathleen K KK Sartor Carolyn E CE

Drug and alcohol dependence 20160416

<h4>Background</h4>Use of cigarettes and cannabis frequently co-occurs. We examine the role of genetic and environmental influences on variation in and covariation between tobacco cigarette and cannabis use across European-American (EA) and African-American (AA) women.<h4>Methods</h4>Data on lifetime cannabis and cigarette use were drawn from interviews of 956 AA and 3557 EA young adult female twins and non-twin same sex female full siblings. Twin modeling was used to decompose variance in and c ...[more]

PMID: 27114204

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Project description:Importance:Health disparities between African Americans and Whites have persisted in the United States. Researchers have recently hypothesized that the relatively poor health of African Americans may be caused, in part, by African American overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. Objectives:To test the hypothesis that criminal justice system involvement is associated with poor health and greater health risk when controlling for unobserved family factors through a discordant sibling design. Methods:Subjects were drawn from the Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging (CAATSA). Criminal conviction records were extracted from North Carolina's Department of Public Safety. Six measures of health and one measure of health risk were analyzed. The health of convicted respondents was compared to that of unrelated non-convicted respondents matched on childhood and demographic factors ("matched sample"). Convicted respondents were also compared to non-convicted siblings ("discordant sibling sample"). Results:The matched sample included 134 CAATSA respondents. On average, convicted CAATSA respondents, compared to matched non-convicted respondents, were in worse health. Convicted respondents had worse mean self-reported health, worse lung function, more depressive symptoms, and smoked more. The discordant sibling sample included 74 respondents. Convicted siblings and non-convicted siblings had similar self-reported health, depressive symptoms, and smoking. In general, non-convicted siblings were in worse health than non-convicted respondents from the matched sample, implying that poor health runs in families. Conclusions:This study provided preliminary evidence that some of the association between a criminal record and poor health is confounded by family factors. Though more research is needed to support these results, the study suggests that criminal involvement may not be associated with the surfeit of health problems observed among African Americans. The criminal justice system, nonetheless, could be used to decrease the health disparity.

Project description:The incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer are significantly higher in African-American men when compared to European-American men. We tested the hypothesis that differences in tumor biology contribute to this survival health disparity. Using microarray technology, we obtained gene expression profiles of primary prostate tumors resected from 33 African-American and 36 European-American patients. These tumors were matched on clinical parameters. We also evaluated 18 non-tumor prostate tissues from 7 African-American and 11 European-American patients. The resulting datasets were analyzed for expression differences on the gene and pathway level comparing African-American with European-American patients. Our analysis revealed a significant number of genes, e.g., 162 transcripts at a false-discovery rate less than 5%, to be differently expressed between African-American and European-American patients. Using a disease association analysis, we identified a common relationship of these transcripts with autoimmunity and inflammation. These findings were corroborated on the pathway level with numerous differently expressed genes clustering in immune response, stress response, cytokine signaling, and chemotaxis pathways. Furthermore, a two-gene tumor signature was identified that accurately differentiated between African-American and European-American patients. This finding was confirmed in a blinded analysis of a second sample set. In conclusion, the gene expression profiles of prostate tumors indicate prominent differences in tumor immunobiology between African-American and European-American men. The profiles portray the existence of a distinct tumor microenvironment in these two patient groups. Experiment Overall Design: A total of 69 fresh-frozen prostate tumors were obtained from the NCI Cooperative Prostate Cancer Tissue Resource (CPCTR) and the Department of Pathology at the University of Maryland (UMD). All tumors were resected adenocarcinomas that had not received any therapy prior to prostatectomy. The macro-dissected CPCTR tumor specimens (n = 59) were reviewed by a CPCTR-associated pathologist, who confirmed the presence of tumor in the specimens. These tissues were collected between 2002 and 2004 at four different sites, with each site providing tissues from both African-American and European-American patients. Information on race/ethnicity (33 African-Americans and 36 European-Americans) was either extracted from medical records (CPCTR) or obtained through an epidemiological questionnaire in which race/ethnicity was self-reported (UMD). Only one patient, a European-American, was also Hispanic. Surrounding non-tumor prostate tissue was collected from 18 of the recruited patients in this study. Of those, 7 were African-American men and 11 were European-American men. We also isolated total RNA from 10 needle biopsy specimens collected from patients at the National Naval Medical Center (one African-American and 9 European-Americans) that did not have prostate cancer. From those, we prepared two RNA pools, each representing 5 patients. Clinicopathological characteristics of the patients, including age at prostatectomy, histology, Gleason score, pathological stage, PSA at diagnosis, tumor size, extraprostatic extension, margin involvement, and seminal vesicle invasion were obtained from CPCTR. For UMD cases, this information was extracted from the medical and pathology records, if available. Written informed consent was obtained from all donors. Tissue collection and study design were approved by the institutional review boards of the participating institutions.

Dataset Information

The genetic relationship between cannabis and tobacco cigarette use in European- and African-American female twins and siblings.

Publications

The genetic relationship between cannabis and tobacco cigarette use in European- and African-American female twins and siblings.

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