Our group has previously reported that rare missense variants in CHRNB3 increase risk for cocaine dependence26. The results reported here demonstrate that low frequency and common alleles within the CHRNB3 locus are also associated with increased risk of DSM-5 cocaine use disorder. Cocaine dependence has now been associated with SNPs in two different nicotinic receptor gene clusters, on chromosomes 8 and 15 526. It is interesting, however, that the variant on chromosome 15, within CHRNA5 is associated with decreased risk for cocaine dependence, while rs9298626 and other variants in the CHRNB3-A6 region are associated with higher (OR = 2.62) risk for DSM-5 cocaine use disorder.
