Serum proteomics of methamphetamine addicts and up-regulation of complement factor H related to methamphetamine addiction

Methamphetamine (METH) is a new type of drug with strong tolerance and addiction. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the processes of METH addiction are still not fully understood. To determine possible biomarkers and mechanisms that are responsible for METH addiction, a 2-DE based proteomics approach was used to evaluate the changes in protein expression of the serum in Chinese patients addicted to METH, which to the best of our knowledge is the first study of its kind. We identified five proteins that were markedly altered and complement factor H (CFH), the most stably up-expressed protein in each 2-DE experiment, was further studied using the rat conditioned place preference (CPP) model to detect any changes to its expression in the sera and six brain regions of interest. We report, for the first time, that CFH was positive related to METH addiction.

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► Protein expression profile in the sera of Chinese methamphetamine (METH) abusers were detected for the first time.
► CFH was proved to be stably and significantly up-regulated in both METH addiction human and rats’ sera.
► Rat METH CPP model was built to detect any changes to CFH expression in the sera and six brain regions of interest.
► The increases of quantity of CFH in hippocampus and VTA were significant in the METH model rats.