From Proteomic Studies to Molecular Pathways - Proteins Involved in Response to Methamphetamine Administration

Background: Methamphetamine is a well-known psychostimulant, which exerts its influence on the central nervous system. To identify the changes caused by this drug at the molecular level, several proteomic studies were performed, their results were published in available literature. Objective: We summed up the results of available proteomic data on the topic of methamphetamine influence on central nervous system published up to date. Our goal was to reveal proteins, which were indicated several times by different proteomics studies, and thus might be considered as validated. Method: We used bioinformatic analysis tools to estimate the interactions between proteins. It was used: WEB-based GEne SeT AnaLysis Toolkit (WebGestalt), KEGG Database, Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and STRING database. Results: As a result, a list of 80 proteins was generated. After bioinformatic analysis of their functions and interactions it found out that, that many of them are engaged in energy metabolism, mainly in glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, TCA cycle, and respiratory electron transport. Conclusion: Such meta-analysis of the results generated by various laboratories might be the first step to broaden our knowledge about molecular pathways involved in methamphetamine addiction and neurotoxicity.