Associations of prenatal nicotine exposure and the dopamine related genes ANKK1 and DRD2 to verbal language

John D Eicher; Natalie R Powers; Kelly Cho; Laura L Miller; Kathryn L Mueller; Susan M Ring; J Bruce Tomblin; Jeffrey R Gruen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063762

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Associations of prenatal nicotine exposure and the dopamine related genes ANKK1 and DRD2 to verbal language

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Associations of prenatal nicotine exposure and the dopamine related genes ANKK1 and DRD2 to verbal language

John D Eicher, Natalie R Powers, Kelly Cho, Laura L Miller, Kathryn L Mueller, Susan M Ring, J Bruce Tomblin and Jeffrey R Gruen

PloS one, Vol.8(5), pp.e63762-e63762

2013

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063762

PMCID: PMC3655151

PMID: 23691092

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Abstract

Language impairment (LI) and reading disability (RD) are common pediatric neurobehavioral disorders that frequently co-occur, suggesting they share etiological determinants. Recently, our group identified prenatal nicotine exposure as a factor for RD and poor reading performance. Using smoking questionnaire and language data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, we first determined if this risk could be expanded to other communication disorders by evaluating whether prenatal nicotine exposure increases risk for LI and poor performance on language tasks. Prenatal nicotine exposure increased LI risk (OR = 1.60; p = 0.0305) in a dose-response fashion with low (OR = 1.25; p = 0.1202) and high (OR = 3.84; p = 0.0002) exposures. Next, hypothesizing that the effects of prenatal nicotine may also implicate genes that function in nicotine related pathways, we determined whether known nicotine dependence (ND) genes associate with performance on language tasks. We assessed the association of 33 variants previously implicated in ND with LI and language abilities, finding association between ANKK1/DRD2 and performance on language tasks (p≤0.0003). The associations of markers within ANKK1 were replicated in a separate LI case-control cohort (p<0.05). Our results show that smoking during pregnancy increases the risk for LI and poor performance on language tasks and that ANKK1/DRD2 contributes to language performance. More precisely, these findings suggest that prenatal environmental factors influence in utero development of neural circuits vital to language. Our association of ANKK1/DRD2 further implicates the role of nicotine-related pathways and dopamine signaling in language processing, particularly in comprehension and phonological memory.

Pregnancy

Nicotine - administration & dosage

Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects

Language

Humans

Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases - genetics

Female

Speech

Dopamine - metabolism

Receptors, Dopamine D2 - genetics

Cohort Studies

Nicotine - pharmacology

Details

Title: Subtitle: Associations of prenatal nicotine exposure and the dopamine related genes ANKK1 and DRD2 to verbal language
Creators: John D Eicher - Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
Natalie R Powers
Kelly Cho
Laura L Miller
Kathryn L Mueller
Susan M Ring
J Bruce Tomblin
Jeffrey R Gruen - Yale University
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: PloS one, Vol.8(5), pp.e63762-e63762
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063762
PMID: 23691092
PMCID: PMC3655151
NLM abbreviation: PLoS One
ISSN: 1932-6203
eISSN: 1932-6203
Publisher: Public Library of Science; United States
Grant note: 092731 / Wellcome Trust R01 NS043530 / NINDS NIH HHS Wellcome Trust F31 DC012270 / NIDCD NIH HHS G9815508 / Medical Research Council T32 GM007223 / NIGMS NIH HHS R01NS43530 / NINDS NIH HHS F31DC012270 / NIDCD NIH HHS T32 MH014235 / NIMH NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 2013
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984070598302771

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