Protein expression profile in the striatum of acute methamphetamine-treated rats

Proteomic Analysis of Rat Prefrontal Cortex in Three Phases of Morphine-Induced Conditioned Place Preference

Morphological alterations of synapse are found after morphine administration, suggesting that regulation of synaptic plasticity may be one of the mechanisms of neuroadaptation in addiction. However, the molecular basis underlying the abnormal synapse morphological and physiological changes in the morphine-induced dependence, withdraw, and relapse is not well understood. As prefrontal cortex (PFC) is one of the most important brain regions, which provides executive control over drug use and is severely impaired in many addicts, systematic analysis of the biochemical and molecular alteration of synaptic fraction of PFC in morphine-induced neuroadaptation is necessary. In this study, differential protein expression profiling of synaptic fraction of rat PFC based on morphine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) model was performed with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Our results showed that a total of 80 proteins were differentially expressed by 2-DE analysis during three phases of CPP assay. Of them, 58 were further identified by mass spectrometry. These proteins were classified into multiple categories, such as energy metabolism, signal transduction, synaptic transmission, cytoskeletal proteins, chaperones, and local synaptic protein synthetic machinery according to their biological functions. Our study provides a global view of synaptic-related molecular networking in PFC under morphine-induced dependence, withdraw, and relapse, indicative of a concerted biological process in neuroadaptation under chronic morphine exposure.

Use of proteomics for the identification of novel drug targets in brain diseases

In spite of the rapid advances in the development of the new proteomic technologies, there are, to date, relatively fewer studies aiming to explore the neuronal proteome. One of the reasons is the complexity of the brain, which presents high cellular heterogeneity and a unique subcellular compartmentalization. Therefore, tissue fractionation of the brain to enrich proteins of interest will reduce the complexity of the proteomics approach leading to the production of manageable and meaningful results. In this review, general considerations and strategies of proteomics, the advantages and challenges to exploring the neuronal proteome are described and summarized. In addition, this article presents an overview of recent advances of proteomic technologies and shows that proteomics can serve as a valuable tool to globally explore the changes in brain proteome during various disease states. Understanding the molecular basis of brain function will be extremely useful in identifying novel targets for the treatment of brain diseases.

Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (NISAD): 10 years of Australia's first virtual research institute

OBJECTIVE

To review the first 10 years of operation of the Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (NISAD), Australia's first virtual research institute.

METHOD

Narrative description of the evolution of NISAD.

RESULTS

Since inception in 1996, NISAD has developed a wide range of activities to enhance existing efforts and develop new initiatives in schizophrenia research, initially throughout New South Wales, but increasingly on a national scale. This involved the initial development of critical research infrastructure to provide the foundation, with the subsequent focus on developing a multidisciplinary programme of schizophrenia research, across the basic to applied research spectrum. While the primary focus has been the scientific domain, NISAD has also played a leading role in increasing public awareness of schizophrenia as a disease amenable to scientific investigation.

CONCLUSION

NISAD has succeeded in building a framework to apply the latest developments in neuroscience to the study of schizophrenia and has formed a multidisciplinary network of clinicians and neuroscientists who are actively collaborating on a range of research initiatives. The 'virtual institute' structure of NISAD has proven cost-efficient and consistent with innovative thinking about research resource management.

Methamphetamine downregulates peroxiredoxins in rat pheochromocytoma cells

Methamphetamine (METH) is an abusive psychostimulant that induces neuronal cell death/degeneration in experimental animals and humans. METH-induced apoptosis in rat pheochromocytoma cells was utilized to study the neurotoxic mechanism. During METH intoxication, we found that peroxiredoxins and thioredoxins/thioredoxin reductases (peroxiredoxin reducing systems) which are known to prevent oxidative stress and apoptosis were differentially downregulated and upregulated, respectively. We also found not only the free radicals but also the oxidative forms of peroxiredoxin and thioredoxin were increased, indicating the dysfunction of these enzymes. Thus, METH-induced differential regulation and oxidation of peroxiredoxins and thioredoxin may be an important mechanism for apoptosis.