The influence of COMT gene functional polymorphism on formation of chronic pain

Byś Aleksandra, Zieliński Grzegorz, Filipiak Zuzanna, Ginszt Michał. The influence of COMT gene functional polymorphism on formation of chronic pain. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2019;9(7):429-442. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3352331 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/7171 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part B item 1223 (26/01/2017). 1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eISSN 2391-8306 7 © The Authors 2019; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 01.07.2019. Revised: 05.07.2019. Accepted: 26.07.2019. The influence of COMT gene functional polymorphism on formation of chronic pain Aleksandra Byś1; http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5494-0311; bysaleksandra@gmail.com Grzegorz Zieliński1; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2849-0641; grzegorz.zielinski.um@gmail.com Zuzanna Filipiak2; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1713-3315; zuziafilipiak009@interia.pl Michał Ginszt1; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0800-6103; michal.ginszt@umlub.pl 1 Chair and Department of Rehabilitation, Physiotherapy, and Balneotherapy, Medical University of Lublin, Magnoliowa 2, 20-400 Lublin 2 Students' Scientific Group, Department of General Pediatrics, Medical University of Warsaw, Żwirki i Wigury 61, 02-091 Warszawa Abstract Introduction and purpose The prevalence of chronic pain is estimated at around 30% of the world's population. The risk of developing chronic pain depends, among others, on from genetic factors. Considering that chronic pain is a serious diagnostic and therapeutic problem, and if treated inadequately constitutes a serious threat to public health, focus should be on identifying the risk factors for its occurrence in order to establish an effective treatment. The aim of the work is to summarize the latest knowledge about the influence of functional polymorphism of the COMT gene on the formation of chronic pain. Material and methods The material for this literature review were publications on the subject of research from the last 5 years. Relevant articles have been identified by two authors using PubMed, Google Scholar and Researchgate publishing bases using key words: "gene COMT", "headache", "chronic pain", "chronic back pain", "fibromyalgia", "temporomandibular disorder", "postoperative pain" according to Medical Subject Headings. The review of articles consisted of 3 stages. Finally, 19 works were qualified for the review. Results Functional polymorphism of the COMT gene is one of the factors affecting the modulation of pain. Its single genetic variants will positively correlate with the occurrence of temporomandibular disorders and chronic lower back pain. Differences in genetic variants of the COMT gene will also affect the susceptibility to fibromyalgia and increase the severity of clinical symptoms. The COMT gene polymorphism does not seem to correlate with chronic headaches. Conclusions Research to determine the effect of COMT gene polymorphism can significantly affect the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain. Keywords: COMT gene; chronic pain; genetics; functional polymorphism