Replication of the pharmacogenetic effect of rs678849 on buprenorphine efficacy in African-Americans with opioid use disorder

Many patients with opioid use disorder do not have successful outcomes during treatment but the underlying reasons are not well understood. An OPRD1 variant (rs678849) was previously associated with methadone and buprenorphine efficacy in African–Americans with opioid use disorder. The objective of this study was to determine if the effect of rs678849 on opioid use disorder treatment outcome could be replicated in an independent population. Participants were recruited from African–American patients who had participated in previous studies of methadone or buprenorphine treatment at the outpatient treatment research clinic of the NIDA Intramural Research Program in Baltimore, MD, USA between 2000 and 2017. Rs678849 was genotyped retrospectively, and genotypes were compared with urine drug screen results from the previous studies for opioids other than the one prescribed for treatment. Genotypes were available for 24 methadone patients and 55 buprenorphine patients. After controlling for demographics, the effect of rs678849 genotype was significant in the buprenorphine treatment group (RR = 1.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.59–1.79, p = 0.021). Buprenorphine patients with the C/C genotype were more likely to have opioid-positive drug screens than individuals with the C/T or T/T genotypes, replicating the original pharmacogenetic finding. The effect of genotype was not significant in the methadone group (p = 0.087). Thus, the genotype at rs678849 is associated with buprenorphine efficacy in African–Americans being treated for opioid use disorder. This replication suggests that rs678849 genotype may be a valuable pharmacogenetic marker for deciding which opioid use disorder medication to prescribe in this population.