Kenneth Blum^1-4, Alireza Sharafshah⁵, Kai -Uwe-Lewandowski^4,6, Albert Pinhasov², Igor Elman⁷, Panayotis K Thanos⁸, David Baron^1,9, Catherine A Dennen¹⁰, Abdalla Bowirrat², Edward J Modestino,¹¹ Mark S Gold¹², Alexander PL Lewandowski¹³, Chynna Fliegelman¹⁴ and Rajendra D Badgaiyan¹⁵*

¹Division of Addiction Research and Education, Center for Sports, Exercise and Global Mental Health, Western University Health Sciences, Pomona, CA, USA
²Department of Molecular Biology and Adelson School of Medicine, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
³Department of Clinical Neurology, The Blum Institute on Neurogenetics and Behavioral Addictions, Austin, TX., USA
⁴Division of Personalized Pain Therapy and Education, Center for Advanced Spine Care of Southern Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
⁵Cellular and Molecular Research Center, School of Medicine, Guilin University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
⁶Department of Orthopaedics, Fundación Universitaria Sanitas Bogotá D.C. Colombia
⁷Department of Psychiatry, Harvard School of Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA
⁸Behavioral Neuropharmacology and Neuroimaging Laboratory on Addictions, Clinical Research Institute on Addictions, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biosciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA
⁹Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA., USA
¹⁰Department of Family Medicine, Jefferson Health Northeast, Philadelphia, PA, USA
¹¹Brain and Behavior Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Curry College, Milton, MA, USA
¹²Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
¹³Department of Biological Sciences, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA., USA
¹⁴Department of Psychology, St. Johns University, Queens, NYC., NY., USA
¹⁵Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences School of Medicine, Midland, TX., USA

*Corresponding Author: Rajendra D Badgaiyan, Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences School of Medicine, Midland, TX., USA.

Received: March 05, 2025; Published: March 13, 2025

Abstract

In 1995, Kenneth Blum coined the term “Reward Deficiency Syndrome’(RDS) to provide the mental health field with an umbrella term expressing a dissatisfaction of everyday experiences due to a dysregulation of dopaminergic dysregulation especially the DRD2 Taq A1 polymorphism presenting with up to a 40% reduction of D2 receptors in brain tissue with two copies. While the concept of RDS as the actual real umbrella of all mental illness unlike the current DSM-V (the brain is not carved out as portrayed by this important psychiatric manual) awaits further intensive research. In fact, Steven Hyman (former director of NIMH) suggests otherwise and has urged for research related to etiological causes instead to help explain the failings of mental health. Certainly, the RDS Consortium agrees with this difficult but needed psychiatric challenge. It is noteworthy that as of 2-5-2025, there are 1615 articles listed PUBMED using the word term “Reward Deficiency” and 270 listed for RDS specifically. However, since the initial finding of the first gene discovered to associate with severe alcoholism being the DRD2A1 allele by Blum and Noble and their associates, at least 700 or more genes have been found to be involved in RDS behaviors. While this seems quite complex in a study submitted for publication elsewhere deep silico GWAS meta-meta-analysis and pharmacogenomics mining has filtered the actual gene network down to 29 as a predictive panel of RDS behaviors. However, only 15 of these genes are linked into a network and five of these genes include DRD2, DRD4, OPRMI, COMT and 5-HTTLR. Understanding the relevance of a shared genetic basis for mental illness the RDS consortium is developing novel technology to scientifically “cure” RDS via gene editing technology (e.g. Transplice molecular genetic technology). Certainly, the jury is not in as yet, but we are encouraged about the future following arduous research from the scientific community requiring “all hands on deck”.

 Keywords: Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS); Dopamine Dysregulation; Genetic Testing; Gene Editing, Trans -Splicing Molecular Genetic Testing and Messenger RNA (mRNA)

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Citation

Citation: Rajendra D Badgaiyan., et al. “Is It Scientifically Possible To ‘Cure” Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) Via Transplice Molecular Genetic Technology?”. Acta Scientific Neurology 8.4 (2025): 15-20.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2025 Rajendra D Badgaiyan., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.