serum level of gdnf is associated with adherence to methadone maintenance treatment

Background: preclinical studies have shown that neurotrophic factors, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (gdnf), are involved in the modulation of biochemical and behavioral adaptations to substance use. methods: we studied the impact of gdnf and bdnf serum levels on adherence to methadone maintenance treatment (mmt) through cross-sectional research. participants were clients on mmt (43 males), subjects in remission from opioid use disorder (12 males), and healthy controls (20 males). adherence and non-adherence to treatment were assessed by the detection of illicit opioids in random urinalysis. results: using t-tests for independent groups and analysis of variance (anova), gdnf serum levels in the adherent patients to mmt were found to be significantly higher than in the non-adherent patients. bdnf serum levels were not different between adherent and non-adherent patients. conclusions: our results suggest the involvement of gdnf as a biological factor in adherence to mmt.