Chronic Methamphetamine Increases Alpha-Synuclein Protein Levels in the Striatum and Hippocampus but not in the Cortex of Juvenile Mice

Journal Title: Journal of Addiction & Prevention - Year 2014, Vol 2, Issue 2

Abstract

Methamphetamine is the second most widely used illicit drug worldwide. More than 290 tons of methamphetamine was synthesized in the year 2005 alone, corresponding to approximately ~3 billion 100 mg doses of methamphetamine. Drug addicts abuse high concentrations of methamphetamine for months and even years. Current reports in the literature are consistent with the interpretation that methamphetamine-induced neuronal injury may render methamphetamine users more susceptible to neurodegenerative pathologies. Specifically, chronic exposure to psychostimulants is associated with increases in striatal alpha-synuclein expression, a synaptic protein implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. This raises the question whether methamphetamine exposure affects alpha-synuclein levels in the brain. In this short report, we examined alpha-synuclein protein and mRNA levels in the striatum, hippocampus and cortex of adolescent male mice following a neurotoxic regimen of methamphetamine (24mg/kg/daily/14days). We found that methamphetamine exposure resulted in a decrease in the monomeric form of alpha-synuclein (molecular species 19 kDa) in the striatum and hippocampus, but not in the cortex. Despite the elevation of high molecular weight alpha-synuclein species (>19 kDa), there was no change in the alpha-synuclein mRNA levels in the striatum, hippocampus and cortex of mice exposed to methamphetamine. The methamphetamine-induced increase in high molecular weight alpha-synuclein protein levels might be one of the causal mechanisms or one of the compensatory consequences of methamphetamine-mediated neurotoxicity.

Authors and Affiliations

Habibeh Khoshbouei

Keywords

Related Articles

Reliability of Surveys on Alcohol Consumption, Sexual Coercion and Contraception

A series of case reports has been started in preceding papers on alcohol misuse, sexual misbehavior and related topics from the last decades of the Soviet period [1-5]. These cases have been reported to the authorities a...

Acquired Color Vision Defects in Chronic Heavy Smoking

Nicotine, a psychoactive compound of cigarette, is an alkaloid that binds and activates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus, being able to affect visual spatial processing. Loss...

The Case for Placement Criteria for Adolescent Substance Use Disorders

Adolescent substance use (MTF, 2012) and substance use disorders (SUD) continue to be major public health concerns. However, SUD has unfortunately received only little resources compared to other high prevalence mental d...

Effects of Brief Alcohol Interventions on Drinking and Driving among Youth: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Objective: Alcohol-impaired driving persists as a major cause of traffic fatalities and injuries among young drivers. This meta-analysis examined whether brief alcohol interventions were effective in reducing driving aft...

Prevention of Opioid Use Disorders for Veterans with Chronic non Cancer Pain and PTSD

Psychological trauma is a major predictor of opioid dependence, with the risk of intravenous drug use being increased nine-fold in individuals with a history of early trauma [1] and a co-morbid rate of 33% in adults with...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP202557
  • DOI 10.13188/2330-2178.1000015
  • Views 124
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Habibeh Khoshbouei (2014). Chronic Methamphetamine Increases Alpha-Synuclein Protein Levels in the Striatum and Hippocampus but not in the Cortex of Juvenile Mice. Journal of Addiction & Prevention, 2(2), 1-6. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-202557