Almost everyone has heard of the B vitamin, folate or the form
you can commonly buy in a drug store, Folic Acid. Folate is used
by many biological processes to donate methyl groups to other
compounds. Its active form is L-methylfolate which is produced
through a reaction catalyzed by Methylenetetrahydrofolate
Reductase (MTHFR). So if there’s a problem with MTHFR, then
folate isn’t activated into L-methylfolate and there aren’t the
methyl groups needed for all the biological reactions they’re
used for. Mutations in this enzyme have been linked to
everything from heart disease to cancer, but not, until
recently, addiction. It turns out that L-methylfolate is needed
to donate a methyl group during the production of all three
monoamine neurotransmitters, serotonin, dopamine, and
norepinephrine. That means that a reduction in the function of
MTHFR can lead to a reduction in the production of all three.
I’ve been on the hunt for any mutations that can lead to
functional changes that affect addiction in any way, esp